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Confused Rangers trade Chris Young

The Rangers continue their off-season of making moves I don’t agree with by trading Chris Young to the Padres.

First off, I don’t like it because Chris Young is a local guy — graduated from Highland Park the year after I did — and was by all reports (mine included) a good guy. It’s always nice to see local guys succeed for local teams.

But from a baseball standpoint, it makes even less sense. Adam Eaton, numbers-wise, is about where Chris Young is, but with more experience. Young does have the arm fatigue problems from last year to worry about, but Eaton isn’t without health concerns — his strained middle finger (insert joke here) caused problems last year on a pitcher that already has control problems. But here’s the kicker — Eaton will be a free agent after next year, and who knows whether or not he’ll want to come back to keep pitching in the Launching Pad in Arlington. Young, on the other hand, is a local guy who wants to play here, has had success playing here, signed an extended contract here, and even gave up a pro basketball career to play here. And you reward that by trading him.

This is the part that blows my mind. According to the Dallas Morning news article:

“The Rangers had been working on a deal to land Eaton for nearly six weeks, but had been reluctant to give up catcher Gerald Laird. To add depth to the bullpen, the Rangers agreed to include Young, who tied the club record for victories by a rookie starter last year.”

So they didn’t even have to include Young to get the Eaton deal done, but they gave him up to get setup man Akinori Otsuka? They decided to keep Laird instead, who is in such good graces with the Rangers he couldn’t even get a spot on the major league roster? How in the world does that make sense? The Rangers have so much starting pitching to throw around that they chose to give up a starter instead of a backup catcher? It’s not like we’re talking Pudge Rodriguez here. It’s Gerald Laird. They gave up a starting pitcher to keep Gerald Laird? The more I think about this, the more my brain hurts.

Why in the world, why in the WORLD do you give up a starting pitcher, a starting pitcher that has shown success pitching in arguably the toughest pitcher park in the majors, that wants to be on a team that never attracts free agent starting pitchers? Why? Especially since it’s possible you could have made the trade without even giving him up? Am I confused? Are the Ranger minor league pitching prospects so close to the majors that they’re all going to step in, take over the rotation, and leave the Rangers one setup man away from winning it all?

Unbelievable.

On top of it all, you have the whole John Hart thing, which is worthy of a post on its own. But in a nutshell, there’s rumors that Hart resigned as GM to be a consultant in favor of new GM Jon Daniels, the 28-year-old, just so the media would stop bugging him. The Rangers openly admit that Hart hated the Dallas media, and vice versa, and the two couldn’t work together. Did John Hart just want a cardboard front, while he keeps calling the shots? That would make sense, given that he’s a horrible GM (in my opinion, of course, but I’m not alone in having it) and the latest move is idiotic. What well-respected front office GM candidate would agree to be a cardboard front for someone else? If anyone would, it’d be a 28-year-old eager to take his career to the next level. “General Manager of the Texas Rangers” is something nice to put on a resume.

Again, that last paragraph is a mixture of rumor and conjecture, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Nothing should surprise me with the Rangers anymore.

Tue December 20th, 2005 4:08 pm

Filed under Texas Rangers