The Texas Rangers are looking for starting pitching and have talked to the Arizona Diamondbacks about their starters according to TR Sullivan of MLB.com.
One of the pitchers who could be in play is Zack Greinke. As of now no deal is close, but if the Rangers take on his large contract they would like to trade Shin-Soo Choo who has a big contract of his own.
Greinke is owed $138 million over the next four years while Choo is owed $62 million over the next three years.
The Rangers signed Mike Minor last Monday in an effort to improve a rotation that finished 17th in the league with a 4.66 ERA.
They weren’t finished after that as they showed interest the last few days in acquiring Matt Harvey. However, that ship has sailed.
The Rangers thought trading Jurickson Profar straight-up for Harvey was a steep price. Then Sandy Alderson decided to take Harvey off the market after Mickey Callaway and Dave Eiland recommended that he do so.
Still the Rangers are open to trading Profar for a controllable pitcher, unlike Harvey who is a free agent in 2019. In the end they are looking for value.
“A lot of what we are doing is value driven,” said general manager Jon Daniels according to Evan Grant of Dallas News. “We’ve looked at guys in different spots [than they’ve been in in the past] and we’ve looked at different situations. We are trying to move forward short- and long-term. You look at how teams built, and rarely does it happen in one cycle.”
