Texas Rangers move Minor at trade deadline

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Receive multiple prospects in return

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ARLINGTON—The Major League Baseball trade deadline was Monday at 3 p.m., and the Texas Rangers used the opportunity to trade some of their veteran players to gain younger prospects.

There were a lot of questions as to what all the Rangers would do at this year’s trade deadline. The team that is currently 12-21 with little chance of making the playoffs was expected to dump multiple big name players in hopes of getting younger and setting themselves up for the future.

The biggest name that was being thrown around by insiders and national writers was starting pitcher Lance Lynn. The 33-year-old starter has been one of the few bright spots for Texas this year. In his eight starts, Lynn has a 4-1 record with an outstanding ERA of 1.93.

With just one more year remaining on his contract, it looked like the Rangers would try to deal him, and his name had been thrown around by multiple teams. However, Lynn wasn’t the Rangers’ starter that was dealt. Lefty Mike Minor was traded on Monday’s trade deadline.

Minor, who was an allstar in 2019, was traded to the Oakland Athletics in return for outfeilding prospect Marcus Smith and a young third baseman named Dustin Harris. Smith was taking in the third round of the 2019 MLB draft by Oakland, while Harris was taken in the 11th round. Before the trade, Smith was ranked as the 22nd-best prospect in Oakland’s origination, according to MLB.com The Rangers weren’t

The Rangers weren’t done making moves there, however. Just before the deadline, Texas traded both catcher Robinson Chirinos and corner infielder Todd Frazier to the New York Mets in two separate deals. They received players to be named later in those moves.

It was rumored that Texas was shopping their 26-year-old slugger Joey Gallo. Gallo has two years left of arbitration before becoming a free agent in 2023 and would have certainly gotten a big return if the Rangers had traded him. Gallo will be looking to sign a longterm contract before his arbitration years are over, and by keeping him, Texas looks to be committed to signing the power hitter to a longterm deal as well.

The Rangers are currently 9.5 games back of the division-leading A’s. Texas has the third worst winning percentage in the American League.