MLB Trade Deadline: The ultimate 30-team trade
2. Texas Rangers
The Rangers enter the week 48-50, 17 games out of first place in the AL West, but just 2.5 games out in a crowded AL Wild Card race. After winning the division in back-to-back seasons, Texas is surely capable of making a run at a third straight postseason appearance, but unless the club feels it can re-sign Darvish, the desire to trade him for relatively proven commodities may be too much to pass up.
Though the Rangers aren’t in desperate need of outfielders at this point, the decision to trade Darvish would signal the club is looking ahead to 2018. Adding Pederson, a .236/.349/.442 hitter with nine home runs in 68 games this season, to the mix would fill DeShields’ spot in 2017. Pederson would also help offset the loss of Carlos Gomez, who will be a free agent at the end of the season.
Verdugo would then be the heir apparent in left field (at least until top prospect Leody Taveras is ready for the big leagues), and Verdugo, hitting .332/.407/.444 hitter at Triple-A Oklahoma City, might make his major league debut in September as the club evaluates its options for the future.
The Rangers can expect a healthy Adrian Beltre to return for at least one more season, and with Joey Gallo the long-term option at third base, as well as a backup at first and in left field, there’s no place on the roster for former top prospect Jurickson Profar.
A former infielder who entered the 2017 season with the inside track to win the starting job in left, Profar would be one of several Rangers minor leaguers available to flip for controllable players capable of helping in 2017 and beyond. Profar and Sopko, the prospect the club might acquire from the Dodgers, could then be sent to Atlanta, along with Jonathan Lucroy, for a starting pitcher to take Darvish’s place in the rotation: Julio Teheran.