Texas Rangers Trade Proposal Would Swap Utility Star For Prospect Haul

The Texas Rangers could swap a surprise star from last season for a haul of prospects.

Sep 21, 2024; Arlington, Texas, USA; Texas Rangers short stop Josh Smith (8) hits a two-run home run during the third inning against the Seattle Marinersat Globe Life Field. | Andrew Dieb-Imagn Images

The Texas Rangers roster is back to healthy, which could lead to a reduced role for a breakout star from last season.

Rather than letting utility man Josh Smith sit on the bench, could they trade him away and pick up some extra value?

Jacob Mountz of FanSided suggests they do so as he came up with an intriguing trade that would send him to the New York Yankees.

It was the Yankees that intially traded Smith to the Rangers back in 2021 in the Joey Gallo trade.

This time, Smith would would be sent to New York in exchange for pitching prospect Will Warren and outfield prospect Everson Pereira.

Warren would be the top prospect received in this deal and is currently New York's fifth-ranked prospect per the MLB pipeline rankings.

The 25-year-old was an eighth round pick in the 2021 MLB draft and has risen through the ranks with consistent solid play in the minors, though he did struggle a bit in 2024.

He has a career 4.31 ERA in the minors, but has become somewhat of a strikeout machine. His K/9 rose to 11.2 last season.

His future is likely as a back-end starter, but does have the potential be even better with solid coaching.

Warren made his MLB debut last season and pitched a 10.32 ERA over 22.2 innings. Texas would be buying somewhat low on a promising pitching prospect.

Pereira is the No. 10 prospect and could become a very solid outfielder at the next level. He could end up as either a utility outfielder or a starter at any of the three levels.

The 23-year-old posted a .265/.346/.512 slash line with 10 home runs in 40 games last season, which would be a fantastic pace if he can keep that type of production up for a full season.

This would be about as good of a return as the Rangers could hope for from Smith, who will likely just be a utility player for them this upcoming season.

He played well above his projections with a .258/.337/.394 slash line along with 13 home runs. He is also a solid defender, which helped him pick up 3.2 WAR.

Despite that production, he would mostly be on the bench if their roster is healthy. They could supplement their farm system and pick up two players that could contribute as early as 2025 by selling high on Smith.

This is a hard decision to make, but would at least make sense for the Rangers to pull the trigger on.