The Rangers should package Jack Leiter in a trade for top NL East pitcher

The Texas Rangers are at what they hope to be a run of success that propels them as one of the best teams of the decade. All they have to do is capitalize on their fortune from here on out.

Regardless of some of the team's young foundational piece like Evan Carter and Josh Jung, the Rangers are in win now mode. Guys like Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Corey Seager and Marcus Semien are at the back half of their careers and by the turn of the next decade will be close to retirement.

Given that they are locked in for the next three to six years, the future is indeed now. While it's a tough decision to make, sometimes prospects don't pan out and if they can't find a fit among this group of players it's time to make that tough decision and trade them.

Jack Leiter is at that part of his career. Sure, he's only appeared in nine career games but his struggles go back to even the minor leagues where he has a career ERA of 5.48 in 60 games. He struggles to get control of his pitches, put hitters away and his walk rate gets higher every year.

Leiter has been great this spring with a 2.25 ERA in eight innings of work and the addition of two new pitches has the potential to turn his career around. That might incline Texas to keep Leiter, continue to develop him and risk him potentially turning into a bust over a trade and him becoming the next Cole Ragans.

The Rangers should capitalize on Jack Leiter's progress and flip him for rotation depth

During the offseason, Leiter was listed as a potential trade target from experts around the league. One MLB.com article even floated around the idea of Texas trading Leiter for Brewers' All-Star closer Devin Williams. Keeping in a similar mindset, here's my potential trade proposal.

Texas trades Jack Leiter, Alejandro Osuna and Cameron Cauley to the Miami Marlins for Sandy Alcantara

It's a little wild but the basis of the trade makes a lot of sense for the Rangers. They have a rather deep starting rotation but at the same time the back end of it still has room to get better.

Alcantara, 29, is returning after undergoing Tommy John Surgery and missing the entire 2024 season with the Marlins. He returned to action this spring and in three games has not given up a run, struck out five and touches 100 mph consistently with his fastball. On Thursday, it was rumored that the Marlins will place Alcantara on a innings limit this season, leaving people to speculate that they may looking to trade him to a contender this year.

Adding Alcantara would give Texas a front line starter and opens up the door to pursue other positional needs on the trade market with pitchers like Dane Dunning, Jon Gray and Tyler Mahle.

I understand trading Leiter is hard. The team took him with their second overall pick a few years back hoping he'd become the next star of the rotation. This trade would also mean giving away the organization's No. 8 and No. 19 ranked prospects in Osuna and Cauley. Both of which are massive talents but could eventually be blocked due to the organization's depth.

But again the team is in win now mode and pairing a pitcher of Alcantara's caliber alongside Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Cody Bradford and Kumar Rocker for the next three to four years could be the difference maker in having multiple World Series titles by the end of the decade.