The LAD are at like $177M and spent $295M in 2022.

If they wanted... they could sign:
$50M Ohtani
$25M Montgomery
$25M Yamamoto
$100M and would put them at $282M

They'd still have holes in the rotation, but they have some young talent:
Miller (24): 22GS, 3.76 would be their 3rd.

A 4th of Sheehan (23): 11GS, 4.92 would get be solid with their Offense.

Signing Ohtani and not adding two legit SPs, IMO would ensure Ohtani and Trout were the 2 best players not in the playoffs for 2024.

Water Boy said:

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From every thing I have read/seen on Ohtani and his preferred destination I find it odd that the dodgers are presumed to sign him. I hear he's a reserved guy and doesn't want a ton of attention. Seems like that would easily eliminate LA. Also hear money isn't the #1 factor for him. He also wants to play for a winner. LA wins but can't win in the playoffs. LA also needs high quality starting pitching. I don't think LA has the money to buy Ohtani and spend an additional 300 million on a few pitching pieces to win now unless they trade the farm for guys like Glasnow and Burns.

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I'd love for the last few teams to back out of their pursuit and he ends up in KC on a 1 year deal.

South Platte said:

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Water Boy said:

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From every thing I have read/seen on Ohtani and his preferred destination I find it odd that the dodgers are presumed to sign him. I hear he's a reserved guy and doesn't want a ton of attention. Seems like that would easily eliminate LA. Also hear money isn't the #1 factor for him. He also wants to play for a winner. LA wins but can't win in the playoffs. LA also needs high quality starting pitching. I don't think LA has the money to buy Ohtani and spend an additional 300 million on a few pitching pieces to win now unless they trade the farm for guys like Glasnow and Burns.

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I'd love for the last few teams to back out of their pursuit and he ends up in KC on a 1 year deal.

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can we at least push him to the NL?

DallasAg 94 said:

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The LAD are at like $177M and spent $295M in 2022.

If they wanted... they could sign:
$50M Ohtani
$25M Montgomery
$25M Yamamoto
$100M and would put them at $282M

They'd still have holes in the rotation, but they have some young talent:
Miller (24): 22GS, 3.76 would be their 3rd.

A 4th of Sheehan (23): 11GS, 4.92 would get be solid with their Offense.

Signing Ohtani and not adding two legit SPs, IMO would ensure Ohtani and Trout were the 2 best players not in the playoffs for 2024.

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You're pretty certain Trout comes back to LAA?

bmac_aggie18 said:

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DallasAg 94 said:

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The LAD are at like $177M and spent $295M in 2022.

If they wanted... they could sign:
$50M Ohtani
$25M Montgomery
$25M Yamamoto
$100M and would put them at $282M

They'd still have holes in the rotation, but they have some young talent:
Miller (24): 22GS, 3.76 would be their 3rd.

A 4th of Sheehan (23): 11GS, 4.92 would get be solid with their Offense.

Signing Ohtani and not adding two legit SPs, IMO would ensure Ohtani and Trout were the 2 best players not in the playoffs for 2024.

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You're pretty certain Trout comes back to LAA?

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He's almost untradeable given his contract and injury history. He is signed through 2030 at $35M+, but seems to miss a big chunk of the season each year. The Angels would have to eat a bunch of that to trade him. Plus he has a no-trade clause that he would have to waive.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/los-angeles-angels/mike-trout-8553/#:~:text=Mike%20Trout%20signed%20a%2012,a%20total%20salary%20of%20%2437%2C116%2C666.

Yep.

7yrs, $37.1M per.

He has averaged 79G the past 3 seasons and is 32.119. If you presume 33 is they typical end of your prime, the Angels are in for a huge payroll sink hole.

How do you even measure his worth?!

Rendon has averaged 49G the past 3 seasons and is 33.181. He is only owed 3yrs @ $38.57M per.

Without Ohtani pitching (their best SP) and without him hitting (MVP-1)... that's a ton of productivity to replace when you only have $74M of CBT room.

73-89 in 2023.

I think LAAA is allowing the Ohtani camp to keeping them in the mix to drive the price up for the LAD.

The #Astros, #Rangers, #Cardinals, and #Orioles are showing interest in one of the hardest-throwing relievers in baseballhttps://t.co/EXmLI0w4LC pic.twitter.com/s1sCZ51aME

— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) December 5, 2023

Somebody dazzle me with information about why Hicks over Chapman and Smith.

DallasAg 94 said:

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Somebody dazzle me with information about why Hicks over Chapman and Smith.

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I would say probably younger and better able to take better coaching from Maddox

DallasAg 94 said:

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Our 40 is at 35 (Hedges is finally off). 15 position players:
OF (3): Carter, Taveras, Garcia
IF (4): Jung, Seager, Semien, Lowe
C (1): Heim,

Left (4): DH, 4th OF, MIF, C

As it stands: Foscue (DH/Util), JP Martinez (OF), Duran (MIF), Huff (C/1B)
Others on 40: Harris, Ornelas, Smith
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For P, we have 20.
SP (5): Eovalid, Scherzer, Dunning, Heaney, and Gray (deGrom will go to the 60 when season starts)
RP (3) : Sborz, Leclerc, Bradford

Left (5): LHRP, RHRP, RPX3

As it stands: Burke (L-26), Hernandez (26), Anderson (26), YRodriguez (25), Latz (L-27)
Others on 40: OWhite (23), Cole Winn (23), Church (22), Corniell (20), Kent (25), Kelly (L-23)

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Question for today: 'As-Is' are the Rangers a competitive team that can make the playoffs and possibly win the WS?

Above from an earlier post of mine. I had put in who are "set" on the roster and the "As it stands" designation is if we took the field, those players highlighted would fill the "Left" roles (as I would see it). We have 5 open spots on the 40, so if you so inclined to dig out a minor leaguer like Langford and position him...

If we did nothing to add players externally, would we be ok. And no... "We already won so anything this year is extra" cop-outs.

My opinion (which is worth exactly what you're paying for it, nothing) is that no, the Rangers can't stand pat.

We won the WS which was amazing, but my biggest concern going into next season is this: if you go back and look at our roster, there were quite a few players who had career years. Heim, Tavares, arguably Garcia, Dunning, Sborz, etc. It would only take 2-3 of those players to backslide a bit and things get dicey.

My wish list is a SP and some bullpen help. Then sign some depth pieces like Jankowski or even Grossman (yes I said it), maybe a veteran catcher. I'm truly not worried about the DH spot because I believe we can fill that internally.

We need to make moves. At the very least we need bullpen pieces. Right now we can compete for a playoff spot but all it takes is a few injuries and bad slumps for us to not make the dance.

Are we interested in Hector Neris? 1.71 ERA last year and seems like an upgrade over Chapman and would be in our price range.

Water Boy said:

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Are we interested in Hector Neris? 1.71 ERA last year and seems like an upgrade over Chapman and would be in our price range.

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My issue with him (4.1), Chapman (5.6), and a lesser extent Will Smith (2.7)... it is the BB9.

Swing and miss stuff, but bringing them in with RISP would be concerning every time.

To add to the conversation...

During the 2023 season, we had to add: Scherzer, Montgomery, Stratton, Chapman, Hedges, and *Carter.

Players on the 26Man roster to start the 2023 season that would not be on the Opening Day 2024 roster as of now:
C: Mitch Garver
OF: Grossman, Jankowski, Thompson <- Replaced internally by Carter and Taveras
DH: Brad Miller

SP: deGrom, Perez <- Replaced with Scherzer and Dunning
RP: Hearn, Ragans, Kennedy, Smith, (Odorizzi, Otto both on 60IL)

Water Boy said:

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We need to make moves. At the very least we need bullpen pieces. Right now we can compete for a playoff spot but all it takes is a few injuries and bad slumps for us to not make the dance.

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Agreed, we need more in the bullpen to compete. We need one or two more 7th/8th/9th inning type guys, right now we just have LeClerc and Sborz; I'd like to have four... so you can give someone a day off when needed, but three minimum.

I don't have time to dig into the roster details right now, but one thing that jumped out to me the other day was that prior to the Winter Meetings starting up, CY put out info through the beats (Evan Grant and Wilson at least) that we like to start the season under the luxury tax threshold. And Evan did a recap and said that we have (I think) $18 to $20M of room. Obviously that isn't enough to sign Montgomery, so either we aren't bringing him back or we would need to make room via a trade. Or maybe CY is bluffing a bit, and we are willing to exceed the luxury tax threshold to start the season? The way I read it was implying that we'd be more willing to exceed the tax by adding pieces part way through the season, if needed.

Yeah I heard that comment about the luxury tax line. Now is not the time to be cheap. Our big contract pieces are in their prime now. Our window is wide open. Not saying we need to break the bank like the past 2 off seasons but at the very least need to add bullpen depth and be ready to make some trades at the deadline as we see fit.

I think what remains to be seen is how this issue with Bally/DSG is going to affect the budget.

According to COTS we have about $20M projected. It hinges on Arbs, obviously.

I've talked about trading guys like Heaney ($13M in '24, then FA) and Gray ($13M in '24 and '25). If you sign Monty for $26M... maybe a sliding scale of $23, $25, $27, and $29), you'd be able to trade Heaney and it be a $10M net to CBTax in '24 AND you'd get some prospects. Maybe you get a DH.

This will lead to tomorrow's question, which is rooted in a Tweet by Evan Grant...the tweet linked an article he wrote for the DMN discussing 5 Rangers that could be traded during the Winter Meetings (Secret: Lowe, Taveras, Duran, and Leiter). My question tomorrow (Secret) will be which players would you be comfortable trading if we can get enough return and that we can replace internally. For example, trade Taveras and replace with Langford. Maybe you get a solid RP+ for Taveras.

Would love to bring Garver back. Without him stepping in for Heim when Heim was hurt we likely don't make the playoffs.

Yeah that's a big issue. Not sure why tv is so hard for teams and providers to figure out. We all know streaming is the future. Do a deal with Apple TV, Hulu, and DFW area local channels. As a fan I would 100% pay an extra $10 a month for an Apple TV package that included ranger games.

Quincey P. Morris said:

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I think what remains to be seen is how this issue with Bally/DSG is going to affect the budget.

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I believe CY discussed this on a recent call with the beat writers. Basically it's going to be a big hit, and though it won't stop them from making moves, it probably takes them out of the running for the really high dollar players (Ohtani, Hader, etc). That was my take-away

We should be able to get a lot in return for Taveras. He's not a super star but he's solid. He's only 25 and still has a few years under team control. A lot of teams would love to have a guy like Taveras on their team.

If they move to something with a streaming option I'd probably drop my cable service for at least a few months in the summer once college baseball wrapped up.

Not bad. Can never have enough arms.

I'll take it. 3.3 ERA with 80 K and 37 BB

I dig it. He was great before his injury and then last year showed that he has come back from it. Also has closing experience.

So... Will Smith?

Looks like the Cubbies are being reported to have left the Ohtani Craps table.

Now, this is GOLD:

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/12/shohei-ohtani-rumors-dodgers-meeting-dave-roberts.html

LAD Manager from the top rope without two ****s of care confirms LAD met with Ohtani.

With SFG, TOR, SEA, and LAAA as the only other listed teams involved, what is Ohtani going to do? Walk away from his most likely landing spot?

Could this have been intentional sabotage to say why the LAD didn't get him? Could LAD be trying to blow up the courting? Maybe a message that the LAD are bigger than one player?

Curious if anything comes from him speaking.

Yeah, that's nuts after all the secrecy.