Texas Rangers Could Now Be in Mix for Padres Ace Following Devastating Injuries
The Texas Rangers now have a significant pitching problem in their starting rotation.
No, it’s not Jacob deGrom or Nathan Eovaldi. It’s the back of the rotation that is now suffering.
On Saturday, Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young announced that two of their anticipated starters for the opening-day rotation, Jon Gray and Cody Bradford, would miss significant time.
Gray suffered a fractured right hand when he absorbed a comebacker during his outing on Friday. It’s the second time Gray has suffered an injury off a comebacker since the start of last season.
This one is more severe.
Young said that Gray will be shut down at least six weeks, and the team is getting more X-rays to determine if he needs surgery. For reference, third baseman Josh Jung fractured his right wrist last season when he was hit by a pitch. The injury was more severe than anticipated and he needed more than three months to recover.
Bradford was already going to miss opening day with soreness in his throwing elbow.
Young announced that Bradford won’t throw for four weeks, which means the earliest he could help Texas would be in May.
The Rangers have internal options. But it seems like “everything is on table for this club” when it comes to their pitching staff.
If so, then that might mean a trade for San Diego Padres right-hander Dylan Cease is a possibility.
The New York Post reported earlier this week that at least nine teams had shown interest in Cease.
Texas was not named among those teams, but two of them went unnamed.
Cease is a popular target for trade because he’s a Cy Young-quality pitcher who is going into his final season of team control. He also comes with a reasonable contract of $13.5 million. The Rangers don’t want to add too much more payroll, but Cease’s deal would fit, especially if they could get the Padres to absorb part of the contract.
Cease would fit immediately behind Eovaldi and deGrom.
He went 14-11 with a 3.47 ERA in 33 starts with 224 strikeouts and 65 walks. He finished fourth in NL Cy Young voting. He was second in AL Cy Young voting in 2022 with the Chicago White Sox.
What would it take to pry Cease from a team that believes they’re contenders?
Texas would have to be willing to pay up.
Per the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Padres are believed to be willing to move him for, at minimum, a Major League-ready bat.
They’re looking for power. The Rangers have it, but not necessarily to spare.
Of the players in their everyday lineup, the one that might interest San Diego the most is right fielder Adolis García, who would be attractive to the Padres because he has one more year of team control.
Texas has outfield depth and could slide Kevin Pillar into right field, who has had a solid spring training but doesn’t have García’s pop.
From there, the Rangers would probably need to kick in a couple of minor leaguers. One would probably be a pitcher. San Diego would likely ask for Emiliano Teodo or Kumar Rocker. Texas would probably counter with someone like Winston Santos and/or Jose Corniell, both Top 15 prospects who are close to the Majors.
The Rangers could even kick in a minor league bat in Blaine Crim, a long-time farmhand with power that fits in well at first base or at designated hitter who has no path to the Majors.
For reference, when the Padres acquired Cease from the White Sox, it gave up four players — right-handed pitchers Drew Thorpe, Jairo Iriarte, Steven Wilson and outfielder Samuel Zavala.
