The Texas Rangers are heading into the 2024 MLB season as the defending World Series champions, but they could use some upgrades to their roster.
The Rangers will experience being the defending World Series champions for the first time this year, and there will be no surprises regarding their ability as a team. The big thing hanging over the Rangers this offseason is the state of the local television contract, which is currently unresolved.
It has been reported that Jordan Montgomery has interest in returning to the Rangers, and he might be waiting for the team to figure out the issue with the television contract. However, there seems to be no sign of that being fixed in the immediate future.
The Rangers have one of the best offenses on paper, and it should carry over from last year. Scoring runs will not be a problem. The starting rotation has some question marks, especially at the beginning of the season.
Texas will be dealing with its usual nemesis in the Houston Astros this season, as they hope to beat them out for the American League West this season. There is one trade that could be made for the Rangers to contend with the Astros, who will likely be one of the top teams in MLB, as long as they stay healthy.
Let's get into the one bonkers trade the Rangers should make before the 2024 MLB season.
Rangers trade 3b Sebastian Walcott, 2B Ezequiel Duran and UTIL Josh Smith to White Sox for SP Dylan Cease
It has been reported that the Chicago White Sox are most likely going to keep Dylan Cease going into the regular season. However, it makes all of the sense in the world for the White Sox to trade Dylan Cease, and if there is a good enough offer, they should pull the trigger on a deal.
This deal would make sense because while the Rangers would be giving up a decent amount to get Dylan Cease from the White Sox, they would not be diminishing the strength of the starting roster. For the White Sox, they would be getting a top 100 prospect in Sebastian Walcott, with two other younger players in Ezequiel Duran and Josh Smith.
Sebastian Walcott would be the headliner of this trade, while Ezequiel Duran is a player who has showed flashes in MLB and Josh Smith is a likely utility player for his career. The Rangers have Josh Jung blocking Sebastian Walcott, and have Marcus Semien blocking Ezequiel Duran at second base. Evan Carter is expected to take the left field spot as well after a great postseason. That was Duran's spot last season.
Not to mention, the Rangers would be adding Cease to a rotation that currently has Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, Andrew Heaney, Dane Dunning and Cody Bradford projected to take up the five spots. Cease would be under control for the next two years, seasons in which the Rangers expect to compete. Cease also would only cost $8 million for this upcoming season in his second to last season of arbitration. If the television contract is not resolved, getting Cease taking up that amount of payroll could make more sense than paying Montgomery around $25 million a year.
It has seemed like an inevitability that Montgomery would return to Texas, but it might be a better move to bring Cease into the rotation to help out before Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer return.
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