Rangers Winter Meetings Recap: Day Three
It was a rather quiet day for the Rangers on Wednesday at the Winter Meetings. There wasn't much noise swirling around the team, not even much around their number one target this winter in Anthony Rendon.
Then the sun went down and all hell broke loose.
Rangers Miss on Rendon
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic sent Rangers' fans into a panic with two simple tweets.
And about 15 minutes later, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News sent Rangers' Twitter off a cliff.
Not much longer after that, it was final. The Angels and Rendon agreed to a seven-year, $245 million deal. After missing out on Adrian Beltre to the Rangers back in 2011, the Angels finally got their revenge.
Evan Grant later reported that the Rangers never went to seven years. They offered a six-year deal, just shy of $200 million. T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com reported on Thursday morning that Texas offered a six-year deal with an option for a seventh year.
Obviously, this hurts. The Rangers wanted Rendon badly, but just weren't comfortable with a guaranteed seven years for Rendon. After missing on Gerrit Cole the Angels obviously wanted to make a big splash. They did exactly that.
My Take on Not Landing Rendon
With what it took to sign Rendon, and what the Rangers reportedly offered, I'm okay with not landing him. Of course, Rendon would've looked great in a Rangers uniform, but how many big contracts have worked for the Rangers?
The Alex Rodriguez 10-year, $250 million deal was the worst contract in Rangers history. After three seasons, the team realized they needed to allocate money elsewhere and shipped him to New York for Alfonso Soriano and Joaquin Arias.
Rodriguez went on to win a World Series with the Yankees in 2009, while Soriano lasted only two seasons in Texas and Arias became no more than a bench player that was eventually traded for Jeff Francoeur and cash in 2010.
The Shin-Soo Choo contract has paid off much better, but I think we can all agree that overall, Choo was overpaid. As of right now, Choo is the highest-paid Ranger, and while he is a productive player, he's limited defensively and is not worth the $21 million he'll make in 2020.
It seems like every single winter, Rangers fans have been playing armchair GM and tried to dump Choo's contract on someone else.
Choo is a fine player, but it's still been an overpay.
The only big contract that has worked out for the Rangers is signing Adrian Beltre in 2011. Even then, at the time of the signing, many fans weren't excited about it. The Rangers had just missed on Cliff Lee and thought Beltre was mostly a "contract year" player.
Obviously, Beltre went on to solidify himself as an all-time favorite Ranger and one of the greatest third baseman to ever play this game.
When it comes to the Angels, it's not the first time they've outbid Texas. They signed Josh Hamilton in 2012, they won the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes, and now Rendon.
We know that Hamilton did not work out for the Angels, Ohtani has been a good two-way player, but because of Tommy John surgery, they have not gotten everything what they've wanted yet from him.
We still have yet to see on Rendon. Sure, chances are good he remains a productive player, but if the Angels can't address their rotation, they will still struggle to compete for a playoff spot. They'll score a lot of runs, but they'll give up a lot of runs.
Plus, factor in that Rendon's seven-year contract has a full no-trade clause and no opt outs. That's definitely a risk for a player that will be 36 at the end of that deal.
Day Four Preview
The highlight of the day is the Rule 5 Draft, which is anticipated to get more action than ever with the expansion of the active roster to 26 players.
The Rangers may look to address depth at certain positions of need by the Rule 5 Draft.
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