At the risk of getting overexcited, the Texas Rangers might be the best team in baseball. Sure, the Tampa Bay Rays have the best record and the Los Angeles Dodgers have the most pedigree, but no team has consistently beaten the brakes off teams like the Rangers through the first third of the season; the Rangers' +143 run differential is the best in the league. With the best offense and fifth-best defense in MLB, the Rangers have run up a 42-26 record and look every bit of a legitimate World Series contender. Over the last few winters, the Rangers have spent liberally in free agency and have built a powerhouse as a result. As such, led by Corbin Burnes, here are three targets at the MLB Trade Deadline who could put the Rangers over the top and help them bring their first ever championship to Arlington.

Aroldis Chapman

During his final season with the Yankees, Chapman looked devoted to playing his way out of his majors—his velocity was down (97.5 miles per hour in 2022, the lowest of his career) and his ERA was up (4.46, by far the highest of his career). Worse, he missed the entire postseason, willfully removing himself from the roster after contracting a gnarly infection from a tattoo and refusing to relinquish his closing role.

This year, though, he's a monster again. His heater has returned, sitting at 100 miles per hour and ticking all the way up to 104 miles per hour at its fastest. Outside of his characteristically iffy command, he's been untouchable; his Baseball Savant profile is almost entirely juicy, red dots. Signed to a bargain-bin one year deal, Chapman will be the most sought after reliever if the Royals opt to trade him.

Beyond being a great pitcher, Chapman is also a hand-in-glove trade target for the Rangers. If the Rangers have a weakness, it's their bullpen, where they've struggled to find a bridge between their potent starting pitching and Will Smith, their lockdown closer. By acquiring Chapman in a trade, the Rangers could lock down their last remaining hole and position themselves for the World Series run that they're otherwise prepared to embark on.

Jorge Soler

The Rangers lineup is a terrifying dinger machine that has a minimum of seven legitimately great hitters in it at any one time. But what if it were even better? So far, the Rangers have mashed a league-leading 418 runs and have done so while getting absolutely nothing from starting left fielder Robbie Grossman, who has mustered all of a .688 OPS.

In contrast, Soler is perhaps the most under-appreciated slugger in the game. While Soler is too bad of a defender or contact hitter to be an all-around superstar, he has ridiculous, cartoonish power; his 17 home runs are third most most in MLB and his exit velocity ranks in the 95th percentile. The Rangers offense is already volcanic with 15 games in which they've poured in double digit runs; Soler would make them even better.

To wit, joining the Rangers would make Soler better as well. As the sole slugger in a noodly Marlins' lineup, Soler seldom sees good pitches; since nobody behind him in the lineup can be trusted to drive him in, pitchers are free to nibble at the edges of the zone, knowing that there's no real cost to walking him. Accordingly, just 45.3 percent of pitches to Soler have been in the strike zone, far below the league-wide average of 48.5 percent.

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Corbin Burnes

Admittedly, this is pie in the sky stuff; the Brewers shouldn't—and probably wouldn't—trade Corbin Burnes. Winning the Cy Young and finishing in the top ten in both 2020 and 2021, Burnes is an elite pitcher who's worth building around. This is elementary stuff, but the Brewers have long shown that a lack of sentimentality or care about winning when there's a buck to be saved—just last year, they offloaded all-galaxy closer Josh Hader, trading him to San Diego rather than extend him. To wit, his relationship with the team has soured considerably, thanks to a bitter arbitration negotiation last offseason.

This season, Burnes is slightly below his usual standard—his 3.44 ERA pegs him as an above average pitcher rather than an outstanding one.

In this sense, Burnes will probably be the best pitcher who could plausibly be traded at the deadline. Luckily, the Rangers have the requisite assets and prospects to swing a deal for him—heading into this season, their farm system was one of the ten best in MLB, according to MLB Pipeline.