[Passan] The Texas Rangers are acquiring left-hander MacKenzie Gore in a trade with the Washington Nationals, sources tell ESPN. It's a 5-for-1 deal, with a handful of prospects heading back to the Nationals. https://bsky.app/profile/jonheyman.bsky.social/post/3mczyokordc2z
Rangers #2, 6, 12, 16, and 18 prospects. Quantity over quality but it’s a LOT of quantity. Rangers basically gave up 25% of their farm system for Gore.
Lol Ok man, managers force players to play where they don’t want to, and the players just shut up and do it and don’t cause issues Got it. Not sure what I was thinking lol
You can believe that all you want But reality is when an established player tells a team they don’t want to play a certain position, it’s very rare for the team to force them to do it. Agents 100% get involved at that point, and even if the player begrudgingly plays the spot, it’s a terrible situation for the locker room, which matters It’s a rare situation to begin with, cause most players if they are asked to play a spot for the betterment of the team will agree to give it a shot, so situations like Boston rarely ever come up to start with But thinking they just tell an established player to shut up and do what you are told is crazy
If you want to actually make a valid point, give me examples of a player with less than 5 years of service time refusing to play a position or any evidence whatsoever that the player’s agent got involved in a situation like that. I don’t mind conceding that we are both speculating but the only “crazy” thing about this exchange is how dismissive and certain you’re acting about something you have absolutely no proof of or insight into.
The less than 5 years isn’t really important here if the player is an established player, which without a doubt Paredes is I’m sure it happens with non established guys, hey if you want to be in the show you are gonna have to play “. “, and I’m guessing the answer is almost always yes As for examples, the Devers situation is the clear one, and his agent quickly got involved. Any agent would because if a player is going to refuse to play a spot and the team is going to try to force them to, the player is going to want out. There aren’t going to be a lot of examples, because teams just don’t operate that way. If they did, players wouldn’t be quick to want to go there and play No need to argue it further as we simply have totally different views on how you handle athletes So you can have final word if you want and I’m gonna let it go
Paredes may be established as a big league player, but he’s far from established at any given position. In fact his defensive versatility was a big part of his appeal in years past. He’s had ONE season (2025) where he played >90% of his games at a single position, and in that season his team traded for someone to take his place. Do you really think if given the choice between playing LF and sitting the bench Paredes is going to choose not to play? Devers was a franchise player on one of the 10 biggest contracts in the league, which he signed after receiving a promise from the front office at the time that he would remain at 3B; once a new GM took over they reneged on the deal and Devers got pissed. That is a COMPLETELY different situation than Paredes, a player in his 5th season who has mostly bounced around to play wherever he could get in. Like I said, players in Paredes situation almost never make a major issue out of where they are told to play, and their agents don’t go whining to ownership on their behalf. It might happen, but it’s extremely rare, and for you to act like it’s some kind ridiculous notion for Paredes to be told he’s gonna play 60-80 games in LF if he wants to play full time is not gonna be something I take seriously unless you provide some examples of it ever happening before.
Hamstring shouldn't be an issue. Parades appears to be a team guy. How do you think Parades would feel about a move to 1st or 2nd base? If he's willing to switch positions, why would he be against a LF position switch?
Tell him if he doesn't want to play then he will get sporadic at bats playing some 3B/2B/1B/DH. I actually think there would be enough AB's to go around, but I wouldn't trust Espada to be able to handle the situation. Most likely with the infield of older and injury prone guys, Parades will get the majority of his AB's playing an infield position.
He hasn't played the OF since he was 16 years old, if not before. The move to 2B at least has some precedent, as disastrous as it sounds.
Damnit I said I wouldn’t No I don’t think Paredes would complain about playing LF. I mean I don’t know a ton about his personality, but he seems like a guy who will do whatever he is Asked to do, like a huge majority of guys would, which is why it is very rare to get to the point of just being told to do something. But I differ greatly with you that if he didn’t want to and told them he didn’t, the Astros are extremely unlikely to tell him get your butt out there like we told you. Those decisions are almost always made though discussions about what’s best and either worked out, or trade requests are made. And call it whining or crying or whatever you want, but when it gets to that point the players agent is going to be involved And I’ll add this too, while he drove MANY of us crazy with his lineup and pitching decisions, a situation like that is where the Astros miss Dusty. In no way would I trust Espada to be able to massage a major player issue like Dusty could
I can’t see a world where it came to that either. Get mad and tell your second best hitter he will play sporadically? They will either work out the situation together, or they will trade him and get something back that will
Oh I agree with the second part 100% On the hamstring, I’m just saying what was said back around the time of the GM meetings. I have no idea how his hammy is now, and if Dana updates us, I still won’t have any idea