The Rangers Lack of Trade Currency

We are going to hear and read about a lot of trade rumors involving the Rangers between now and the end of the year. The only problem with going the trade route to improve the team is that we have very few really good prospects. If we make a big trade we may be left with hardly any really good prospects. We have so few really good prospects now that we are already hindered from offering what might be needed.

The latest MLB Top Rangers Prospects list has these as our top 10 prospects:

Sebastian Walcott
Gavin Fien
Jose Corniell
Winston Santos
A J Russell
Alejandro Rosario
David Davalillo
Caden Scarborough
Josh Owens
Elorky Rodriguez

Some of those ten either do not have the trade value they once had or they don't have the trade value they will probably have within a year.

Fien, Owens, and Russell have not had the opportunity to show much at all, to this point. That will probably change in the next 9 to 10 months, but for now their trade value is probably limited, at least compared to what it will most likely be a year from now.

Elorky Rodriguez being listed as our 10th best prospect shows just how bad our system is, currently. He had a great year in the Dominican Summer League, but he has still not played stateside. A lot of prospects do well in the DSL and then never do much once they move up the ladder. While he has shown promise, it is very premature to consider him as having much trade value. He might be the piece to finish off a deal, but he would never be the headliner of a deal any time soon.

Alejandro Rosario has lost all appeal as a prospect by missing so much time. From recent reports it seems that he finally had his surgery, but now he is going to be out for all of 2026. He used to be one of our best prospects, maybe even top 2 or 3. That is certainly not the case any longer. I am not sure why MLB Pipeline still has him in our top 10.

I do believe Scarborough has shown enough to have good trade value. I could see him being used as a third piece in a trade for a good player. A year from now he might be the centerpiece of such a trade.

Winston Santos has some trade value, but I wonder just how much. I have never considered Santos quite as good as some others do. If the Rangers could find another team who does value Santos, I would be okay with trading him, simply because I think he is slightly overrated.

Corniell and Davalillo are two pitchers that I hope the Rangers can keep. The Rangers need to do a better job at developing their own rotation if they are going to have to work with a strict budget. These two pitchers should have a lot of trade value. Can the Rangers afford to trade off either of their two best pitching prospects though? I do not think they can.

Of course, Sebastian Walcott would certainly be coveted as a centerpiece in any trade we might be able to work out. It would be a shame to lose him since he is our top prospect. It would take a very special player coming back for me to be okay with trading him. For instance, if the Rangers had a chance at trading for catcher, Dalton Rushing, I can see Walcott having to be included in such a trade.

I just can't see the Rangers being able to afford to trade from our top prospects unless it is to get a young, controllable player back in return. A guy like Rushing would be the kind of exception I could agree to.

The only way I would trade Corniell or Davalillo is if they are part of a package that brings back a better pitching prospect. A couple of weeks ago, Evan Grant suggested the Rangers could trade deGrom to Atlanta for Spencer Strider. I thought that was a terrible idea. I replied, "Evan, you want deGrom on the Braves. We need Dylan Lee, Cam Caminiti and JR Ritchie in return. We will pay $15 million each of the next 2 years and throw in Davalillo." I would trade Davalillo in a deal like that, but that particular trade will not happen.

We need to hang on to both Corniell and Davalillo unless a very special trade comes along. Scarborough is very close to being in that same category.

We could make trades and deal guys like Corniell, Walcott, Davalillo and Scarborough for temporary fixes to the current team, but I don't think it would be wise. We are a long way from being contenders so why trade away good prospects from an already very weak system. Unless we made several trades we would not improve enough to be a legitimate contender. That would make our system almost completely barren and bring us several years of below. 500 teams in the near future. I think we need to keep our top prospects unless a very special opportunity comes along.

On the other hand, if the Rangers are willing to deal veterans like Heim, Garcia, Pederson, Semien or Burger, they might be able to pull off some trades and acquire a player or two to help the current team, or maybe bring back some prospects so that we can begin to restock the system.