Texas Rangers: Will Yu Darvish end up the most coveted mid-season rental?

It is only May but the Texas Rangers may have fallen into a hole that they may not be able to pull themselves out of, and Yu Darvish could end up a midseason trade chip because of it.

The Texas Rangers currently reside in the cellar of the American League West Division, eight and a half games behind the division-leading Houston Astros.

While that is not an impossible deficit to overcome, the Rangers have already fallen victim to losing quite a few of their major players to injury.

Third baseman and likely future Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre has yet to make his 2017 debut due to a calf injury.

Neither has starter Tyson Ross who had thoracic outlet surgery to repair the shoulder issues he suffered from with the San Diego Padres last season.

Their bullpen has been a mess of late and they’re missing a key lefty in Jake Diekman due to offseason colon surgery.

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The team’s offense has been virtually non-existent, making Joey Gallo‘s .205 average and league-leading 51 strikeouts look pretty good when you consider he’s hit 11 home runs this season.

Then the big ball dropped when the Rangers announced a week ago on Wednesday that they would be without their second ace Cole Hamels for at least a couple of months due to an oblique strain. Although, it’s likely the team would still be in this hole of 15-20 in mid-May with or without the four-time All-Star.

With the exception of his deceiving 3.03 ERA, Hamels really hasn’t pitched all that well this season. He’s benefited from a .219 BABIP and his swinging strike rate at 7.5 percent is much lower than his career average of 12.3 percent.

Last season Hamels ended up with 200 strikeouts in 200.2 innings pitched, but this season he’s only struck out 15 batters in over 30 innings pitched. His other statistics are at strikingly similar lows.

With or without Hamels, it doesn’t appear that the Rangers will be turning things around anytime soon, making it even more interesting to see what the team will do with their other ace, Darvish, come the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

Darvish’s six-year contract is up at the end of the season and talks of an extension seemed to have stalled on both sides during spring training.

Darvish is currently 3-2 in seven starts through no fault of his own. He’s sporting an ERA of 2.76 and averaging 9.1 Ks per nine innings with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.19.

The Rangers have an average-ranking farm system but most of their high-end talent is still in the lower levels, and they could benefit from some getting some higher-level prospects.

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Likely trade partners include teams that are already atop their divisions with prospects to spare in order to win now, as Darvish will likely end up a half-season rental.

The New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs seem to line up as the Rangers’ best trade partners, but other possibilities include the Colorado Rockies, Boston Red Sox and potentially the Houston Astros.

It’s hard to see them trading with the Astros, however, not only being in the same division but with both teams wanting to be the first to bring a World Series trophy home to the state of Texas.

Still, it is possible. The Astros are probably the strongest team in need of a rental starter to push them over the top this season.

If Darvish intends to test the free agent waters after the season, and it appears that he does, then a trade with Houston wouldn’t end up hurting the Rangers as much as it could in future seasons.

It will be interesting to see where Darvish lands before he ends up a free agent, and even more interesting still if the Rangers end up getting out of this unexpected nose dive, keep Darvish and position themselves for a Wild Card spot.

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However, with the likelihood of winning the World Series from a Wild Card spot being slim, it appears that Texas Rangers President of Baseball Operations and GM Jon Daniels will be the one wheeling and dealing this July.