Rangers  have nothing to fear ESPN's laughable Tarik Skubal-Athletics mock trade proposal

Guess who's back, back again as the hottest topic in the rumor mill of the trade market: Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal. Crazy rumors galore; ESPN suggested the idea of the Texas Rangers' division rival, the Athletics, making a move for the reigning two-time Cy Young award winner.

However, despite the trade proposal, fans of the Rangers really don't have anything to worry about. Even acknowledged in the article itself, the proposal that various ESPN MLB beat writers suggested is pretty laughable: RHP Luis Severino, LHP Jamie Arnold, OF Devin Taylor, and OF Lawrence Butler for Skubal.

When the best you have to offer is a highly paid pitcher in his 30s who is barely better than average and publicly criticizing his current team, it doesn't make much sense. Why would the Tigers, who are nine games out of the division lead, want to waste their most valuable trade asset in years for that? Either way, the Athletics are in the bottom 10 in terms of tax total, so they don't even have the money to make this kind of move.

The Rangers shouldn't be buyers at the trade deadline, unless they can really start stringing together wins

The Rangers are in nearly the same kind of situation as the Athletics, with the controversial relocation set aside. Both of them have struggling prospects, and both of them have cheap owners. That's why if the Rangers were smart, they would avoid the whole Tarik Skubal situation entirely.

On the topic of avoidance, the Rangers should just avoid trading for someone entirely. Not only for all the reasons said previously, but also for the fact that they don't have much valuable capital to begin with due to the Mackenzie Gore trade. They emptied their pockets with that one, and it might come back to bite them. What's more, and this may just be due to the lack of trade capital, most of the 2026 MLB season has felt like a weird kind of purgatory.

If the team does anything at the deadline, it should be to sell. Although, because of the Gore trade, the lack of prospects means that major leaguers would have to be dealt. That means players like Josh Jung and Corey Seager, perhaps even Jacob DeGrom and Nathan Eovaldi, would/should be dealt if the team doesn't start racking up the W's

Chris Young and the rest of the Rangers' front office need to start figuring their way out of the hole that they're in. If they don't, then the calls for them to lose their jobs will get even louder, and Ray Davis might actually be listening for once.

As far as the A's are concerned, while they are hanging around in the division chase with Texas, they don't have the financial firepower nor the willingness to deal top prospects to make the kind of splash move the Rangers should fear.

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