scotsman1948
Well-Known Member
not sure how serious the Rangers are about Gerrit Cole now. according to the MLB network Cole is looking for in excess of 300M for 7 or 8 yearsThe Rangers are willing to play the free agency game. Now comes the hard part: winning it.
Daniels has made it clear since the season ended that he expected the Rangers would increase their payroll, which was about $130 million in 2019, but didn’t indicate by how much. On Monday, by saying the Rangers were prepared to investigate the top of the market, he seemed to imply an increase of $30 million or more would not be out of the question. It would take as much to land one of the premier free agents.
To that end, the Rangers have been in touch with just about everybody on the just-opened free agent market. Yes, that includes the likes of both ace Gerrit Cole and third baseman Anthony Rendon, two sources said. Both are conveniently repped by agent Scott Boras. He also has other top-tier free agents, including pitchers Stephen Strasburg and Hyun-Jin Ryu and third baseman Mike Moustakas.
The first thing the Rangers must determine is how willing they are to dive into Cole and/or Rendon. Both are liable to require investments of seven or more years and $200 million or more.
And they might not stop there. Daniels said adding a top-tier free agent would “not necessarily” keep the Rangers from filling other needs with significant free agents.
“We’re going to sort through what’s best for us,” he said. “We’ve got an idea of where we’d like to go.”
It’s a dramatic change from the recent past.