Must make trades for each American League West team: Texas Rangers
Trade idea: Get rid of Ian Kennedy
The Texas Rangers are at the bottom of the barrel in the American League West, a familiar position.
Ten games behind the underwhelmingly average Los Angeles Angels and 20 games behind the uncatchable Chicago White Sox, the Indians need to make changes. All isn’t completely lost though. They do have a few good young players in Nate Lowe, Joey Gallo and Adolis Garcia. Since we’re focused on one trade each team should make, we’re going to address the elephant in the room. The Rangers have to find a team gullible enough to take Ian Kennedy off their hands.
The need to get rid of their reliable closer has nothing to do with his performance this year. Kennedy has been rock solid. He’s saved 14 ball games, produced an ERA of 2.86 and currently, he’s only allowed five home runs all season long. It’s everything outside of his play that makes Kennedy undesirable.
For starters, the Rangers haven’t made the playoffs in five seasons. Second, they clearly need to continue to get younger and at the age of 36, Kennedy doesn’t fit that mold. Lastly, Kennedy is on an expiring contract which will entice plenty of teams for his services. Could a team like the New York Yankees be interested? Aroldis Chapman has been unbelievably bad. Manager Aaron Boone has already stated that he’s sticking with Chapman but would he be willing to renege on that statement if they can get their hands on Kennedy? Regardless of what that answer ultimately is, the Rangers should be dangling Kennedy as much as humanly possible.