Texas Rangers not ready to be sellers yet
By Hayden Kane
The Texas Rangers have faced the toughest injury luck of any team in baseball over the course of the 2014 season. Even still, their record is still somehow hanging around the .500 mark at 34-34 entering Sunday’s action.
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As such, the Rangers aren’t ready to look ahead to next season and call themselves sellers as this summer’s trade deadline approaches. At least not yet. Here’s what general manager Jon Daniels had to say about the state of the franchise (quotes from the New York Post):
"We are not at that point right now, and I don’t want to say we are going to look to do that,” Daniels said. “Let’s give it time. We are not declaring our intentions before we have to. You have to respond to realities of all situations. If the group we have comes together and we get quicker development in some players, we can take a step forward and stay in [the race]. That is our first choice. If that doesn’t happen …”"
With the playoff expectations that have been customary for the Rangers in recent seasons, it seemed safe to assume that Daniels and company would be buyers once again this summer. It’s hard to imagine them serving the opposite role.
Then again, it is hard to imagine the depleted team that they are at this point having the goods to contend and justify buying at next month’s deadline. There is also the question of which players would be available in a deal. Joel Sherman offers Adrian Beltre, Alex Rios, and Joakim Soria as possible candidates, though he also mentions that the Rangers will want those guys around for what they hope is a quick rebound next season.
The Rangers aren’t sellers, and maybe they won’t be at all even though this has felt like a lost season for a while now.