Texas Rangers rumors: The deep and tradable Texas Rangers bullpen
While Texas Rangers rumors have a number of active reports at the MLB trade deadline, a bit of a surprising area could be the one that gets the most attention from contending teams
The Texas Rangers find themselves in a weird position with future Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre. He is in the last year of his two-year contract and would appear to be one of the Rangers best trade chips. With that said, he has the right to veto any trade and has expressed desire to remain in Texas. Even if they are unable to move the cornerstone third basemen, Texas Rangers rumors seem to assume the team has a plethora of alluring assets to dangle on the market. Veteran pitcher Cole Hamels is one of the obvious ones, but perhaps some of their best trade chips exist within the underrated Rangers bullpen.
The Rangers relieving corps places 8th in all of baseball in fWAR (2.9) while hanging around a similar spot with the 11th-best ERA (3.69). Four of the seven relievers on their roster sport ERAs south of 3.50, with three having strikeouts per nine over 10.00.
Closer Keone Kela is the most notable of the bunch and he is getting hot at the right time. The right-hander has only allowed one run to score over his last nine appearances. Further, he is a perfect 20 for 20 in save opportunities this season. With a shiny 3.41 ERA and an even better 2.66 FIP in 29 innings of work, Kela will be eliciting numerous calls Jon Daniels’ way.
More importantly, he comes with two extra years of control after this half season. At the age of 25, he should be valuable for a good while. Kela is not just a win-now move, rather, he appears to be a short and medium-term bullpen upgrade. That is evidently appealing, especially for a guy who has the strikeout stuff that he possesses.
There are already rumors flying around Kela regarding potential landing spots for the Rangers’ reliever. It is starting to feel predestined that he will be move before the Trade Deadline. They could get a very enticing package in return, considering the value of lockdown bullpen pieces this time of year. He is far from the only arm Texas should field calls on, however.
Next: Volatile Lefty
Lefty strikeout artist
Jake Diekman has also been made available by the Rangers and should cost a fraction of what Kela will net. Not only is he an inferior pitcher, but he only has half a season left. A team would be acquiring him for just the stretch run. While he will not be able to yield as much of a return, the little remaining time on his contract gives the team a greater motive to move him.
In a little over 28 innings of work, he has pitched to the tune of a 3.81 ERA and 3.57 FIP. Granted, his ERA has been ballooned by an incredibly ugly outing on June 26th against the San Diego Padres. He surrendered three earned runs in two-thirds of an inning. Before that appearance, his ERA sat below three.
The southpaw has run reverse platoon splits this season but for his career has been skilled against both sides of the plate. He records an enormous amount of strikeouts with a desirable 11.12 K/9 on the season. That is the good that comes with acquiring Diekman.
The bad is with his command or lack thereof. He currently pairs his stupendous K/9 with an atrocious 5.72 BB/9 and this does seem to be a one-year aberration. The 31-year-old has struggled with walking batters his whole career, but he is taking it to a new level this year.
Still, he does not give up that many homers and churns an above-average amount of groundballs. He is a nice option for those teams without the ample capital to attain Kela’s services. Diekman could slide into a late-inning role somewhat seamlessly.
These are the only two relievers currently mentioned in Texas Rangers rumors. They certainly should not be the only ones in that conversation, though.
Next: Long-term acquisition
At least one long-term option
Texas is heading for a fairly lengthy rebuilding process and the goal is to presumably load up as many prospects as possible. This may be a stretch but perhaps it would benefit the Rangers to, at the very least, listen to teams inquiring about Jose Leclerc‘s services.
For those who do not follow Rangers’ baseball games closely (meaning, a lot of you), Leclerc has been arguably the team’s best reliever in 2018. In his sophomore season, the 24-year-old has compiled a stellar 2.43 ERA and 2.17 FIP in 29 and 2/3 innings.
He strikes out even more hitters than Diekman, with a 12.44 K/9, but has the same walk problem. His BB/9 sits at 5.19, which is slightly more tolerable because of the higher strikeout total. This, too, has been a chronic issue for the right-handed pitcher.
In his rookie season, he literally was allowed to pitch close to 50 innings with a 7.88 BB/9 for the Rangers. That is kind of close to a walked batter per inning! He has reigned it in somewhat but has never been able to shake this throughout his professional baseball career.
He could certainly work through this and he has in 2018. It is important to be cognizant of the fact he has not allowed a single home run this year, though. Leclerc is decidedly not a groundball pitcher and relies on strikeouts and balls in the air to be caught for his success.
There is no way he will be able to suppress long balls like he has thus far. His HR/9 has been closer to the 0.50-0.70 range in his career. This is normal for someone who is, by default, a “flyball/line drive pitcher.” Honestly, it feels like he is destined for some regression to the mean here. That is where xFIP comes in.
Basically, the only difference between FIP and xFIP is the latter stat incorporates a league-average home run rate for a pitcher into its calculations. In other words, FIP factors in a pitcher’s homer total while xFIP sees it as the byproduct of randomness (which it kind of is) and puts it on a league-average scale.
By xFIP, Leclerc has a 3.66 score, which is way closer to his true talent level than a 2.17 FIP. It has to be restated that he does not keep the ball on the ground, so those zero home runs are remarkably unsustainable.
The version of Leclerc we are seeing, the one with the savory low-two ERA, is probably a mirage. With that said, he could be a mirage who could command a tremendous return. He has four years left on his contract, so there is even more value there.
Four years is a far from now, and no one can predict what will happen, but those seasons do not seem to be within the club’s window of contention. Even if Leclerc turns out to be one of the best relievers in the game, most of his years will likely be wasted on a non-contending team. Why not try to maximize the return for him when his value is as high as it is?
This very well could be the most success he will ever experience at the big-league level. Additionally, he is a reliever and people in that profession tend to be finicky, especially ones with command problems like Leclerc.
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At the bare minimum, it does not hurt for Jon Daniels to explore what is out there for this young man’s talent. It could be a Kela-esque return.
Those are the big three that the Rangers should expect to get the most for. Although, guys like Alex Claudio, Chris Martin and Jesse Chavez could be interesting bullpen arms to talk trade about. Claudio, especially, has nasty career numbers against left-handed hitters (.177 opposing average and 60 to 8 K:BB).
I would think teams without a perennial LOOGY would be doing some homework on the 26-year-old with three and half years of control.
The Rangers are clearly in sell mode and, considering the volatile nature of a relief pitcher, should be actively trying to trade multiple relief arms. They have the talent in the ‘pen to pull off decently significant trades. Daniels may have to be bold and deal some young, controllable arms (Kela, Leclerc and Claudio) but accumulating mid-to-high caliber prospects needs to be the goal.
Next: Rangers could trade Hamels before All-Star break
Realistically, no matter the Texas Rangers rumors out there, the team will not trade every single member of their bullpen. It would be ludicrous to expect as much. Regardless, if they could turn two or three of these guys into promising youngsters (easier said than done), well, then that seems like a no-brainer.