Two former Rangers' relievers 'best fit' to reunite with Texas at trade deadline

The final weeks of July are filled with many a trade rumors and the Texas Rangers find themselves firmly in the midst of those conversations.

At 51-50, Texas is still very much in the playoff race and could fall or rise in the standings by the time August rolls around. But the trade decisions will need to be made before then.

Rangers' President of Baseball Operations has a lot of options on the plate: first base, third base, DH and relief pitching. The good news is there seems to be a lot of those avaliable on the market right now.

Pair of former Rangers' relievers top of the list to finish season in Arlington

On Monday, Young touched a bit on his approach leading to the July 31 date. "If this team continues to play good baseball and win, improving the bullpen is something that we will likely have to do," Young said.

This isn't surprising as we all know pitching wins championships and while Texas has one of the best pitching staffs in baseball, there's always room for improvement. Which brings us to the updated ESPN Top 50 trade candidate list.

The list included nine potential options for the Texas Rangers, with seven of those being relievers. What sticks out the most in that list is the Guardians' Emmanuel Clase and Rays' Pete Fairbanks, which both happen to be former Rangers.

Clase was traded to Texas from San Diego back in 2018 and made his big league debut in August 2019 with the Rangers. Then was was traded to Cleveland in 2019 for Corey Kluber a.k.a. one of the worst trades in Rangers' history.

For Fairbanks, he was Texas's ninth-round pick in 2015. The right made his debut with Texas in 2019 but only pitched in 8 games before being traded to Tampa Bay for outfielder Nick Solak.

According to ESPN, both Fairbanks and Clase have a small chance of actually being traded and Texas isn't listed as the only team's interested in the two bullpen arms. They are both having solid years with ERA's at 2.92 (Fairbanks) and 2.86 (Clase) and have a combined 37 saves for their respective teams.

The asking price will sure be high for either given that the Guardians and Rays are still in playoff contention but if Texas is somehow able to grab one of those for bullpen depth, oh my will this staff be unstoppable.