All offseason, Chris Young has maintained the Rangers are a contending team. And throughout the offseason, the club has made a slew of moves.
Until Thursday, for the most part, you could say those statements were mutually exclusive.
That changed with the acquisition of left-hander MacKenzie Gore from Washington in exchange for a package of five prospects — all ranked among the Rangers’ top 20. This was not a survivalist kind of move; this was a declarative one.
Teams treading water make necessary moves, not declarative ones. They still need part-time catchers and a bundle of middle relievers, which has represented most of the Rangers’ offseason work. They don’t give up five prospects including their most recent first-round pick. They aren’t in the market for 26-year-old All-Star starters.
Rangers
For the record, the Rangers gave up Gavin Fien, last year’s top pick, along with infielder Devin Fitz-Gerald, infielder-outfielder Abimelec Ortiz, right-hander Alejandro Rosario and outfielder Yeremi Cabrera for two years of control of Gore. Gore will make $5.6 million this season and is eligible for arbitration again in 2027. With the exception of Ortiz, none of the prospects was likely to contribute to the big league Rangers before 2028.
“These are talented players, and they have bright futures, but we’re in a moment right now in time where we have a team we believe is capable of winning and winning a championship,” Rangers GM Ross Fenstermaker said. “When you have a player of MacKenzie Gore’s status, it’s not that you look past what you’re giving up, but you’re excited about what you’re bringing in and what this does to the clubhouse. It brings us to a tier — on paper — where we can compete with anybody. It’s the price we pay in order to compete.”
Added President of Baseball Operations Chris Young: “This is what you have to do to win and we are willing to do that.”
How much does this change the Rangers’ calculus for 2026? Well, first, let’s put the disclaimers out there: All of this is simply based on projections. Also, those projections hinge largely on a group of nine players under the age of 30 (Josh Jung, Jake Burger, Josh Smith, Wyatt Langford, Evan Carter, Jacob Latz, Robert Garcia, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker) all taking significant strides forward. The importance of that can’t be overstated.
But, the Rangers’ internal projections had them as an 85-86 win team at the beginning of the week. Maybe you think that’s optimistic. Maybe not. Either way, it’s immaterial for this exercise. The point is that adding Gore, a 3-WAR pitcher, according to Baseball-Reference, to the roster takes them to 88 or 89 wins in their models. It’s the difference between being on the cusp or the back end of the playoff field to a certainty. The math: Over the last five years, teams that have won 86 or more games have made the playoffs 64% of the time. Get to 89 wins and the percentage grows to 94%. It’s an exponential difference.
“It’s something we’ve analyzed, in terms of our internal projections, to find the most significant ways we can upgrade our club to give us the best chance to not only make the playoffs, but compete for a championship, and I want to be clear, that is our goal,” Young said. “This is a move we feel really gives us a rotation that matches up with any in baseball.
“On paper, we feel very good about this team, and we feel like this team is built, built to win. We feel like these are the types of moves that allow you to do that. As far as projections, adding a player of this caliber catapults you to another level.”
Related
There are other ways to attempt to catapult. Mostly it involves huge sums of money. That’s the route the Rangers went in 2022 and 2023. Young doesn’t have the same resources now so he’s had to figure out a more creative way to do it. That involves either integrating young players into the fold (see the names above) or trading young talent. Every one of them comes with their own risks.
The risks here are that Gore, who had a 3.02 ERA and 138 strikeouts in 110 innings at the All-Star Break last year, might be more like the second-half version that was limited to 49 ineffective second-half innings and a 6.75 ERA. Or that Fien could end up a middle-of-the-order All-Star hitter. Or that Rosario, after battling serious health issues and a bad elbow, will emerge as a starter at least as good as Gore. Or, well, you get the picture.
You have to take risks. In three-plus seasons heading the baseball operations department, Young has never been afraid to take them, even if it means the minor league system may appear dangerously thin. But Young has a hedge for that, too, with this trade.
If everything goes sideways, save for health, for these Rangers, come midseason having Corey Seager, Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and MacKenzie Gore to trade certainly would accelerate the ability to restock the farm system. The Rangers would rather not talk about that. But it’s there.
In the meantime, Young has found a way to make a move that makes a clear declaration: The Rangers plan to win now.
Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.
