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» » Difficult as trading Elvis Andrus was, Rangers can now move forward without ghosts of the past on the bench - The Dallas Morning News

Difficult as trading Elvis Andrus was, Rangers can now move forward without ghosts of the past on the bench - The Dallas Morning News

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Editor’s note: This story has been updated since it was originally published.

He spent a week haggling over prospects via text. He moved money around like a veteran Reddit investor. He worked through one very sensitive phone call. Jon Daniels had buttoned-up all the business when he went to his son’s baseball practice.

Which is where he overheard one 14-year-old teammate tell Daniels-the-younger about his favorite player: Elvis Andrus. The kid loved him. Loved watching him play.

“I’m sitting there biting my lip, thinking ‘Well, have I got some news for you’.” Daniels said Saturday about an hour after trading the poor kid’s favorite away. “But it was a reminder of how popular Elvis is and for all very positive reasons. He’s been one of our most exciting and consistent players on our best teams.”

On Saturday, the Rangers ripped away the last ties to that past by trading Andrus, who had spent his entire 12 season career as their exuberant starting shortstop, to — hold on to your hats — Oakland in a five-player deal. The Rangers also added catcher Aramis Garcia, leaving them with one catching Garcia (the prospect David Garcia), and a cool $13.5 million.

The tangible return: Khris Davis, a DH who lost his role last year and will have to compete to make the Rangers in spring training, right-hander Dane Acker, who has yet to appear in a game as a professional and catching prospect Jonah Heim. The Rangers liked Acker in last year’s draft and might have taken him had he been there when then picked in the fifth round. Heim gives them more young catching depth.

Perhaps more important is what is not as tangible: Freedom.

Maybe that’s not the best word in these turbulent times. But, anyway, it’s important.

They are free now to develop their own future identity, all ties to the long-ago glory years stripped away. It was apparent when the Rangers told Andrus he’d cede shortstop to Isiah Kiner-Falefa for 2021 but without guaranteeing him a role going forward. The trade guarantees they will move forward without ghosts of the past on the bench.

“It’s one of the most exciting parts about this, because as great as those teams were, it was a decade ago,” Daniels said. “Obviously we’ve moved past that and I’m excited to see these guys compete and forming their own identity as a club I think this this allows them more of a free runway to demonstrate who they are and the style of play that we want and that [manager Chris Woodward] wants.

“Elvis wasn’t holding them back necessarily,” Daniels added. “It’s just the nature of life when you have an opportunity in front of you and somebody is going to step up and seize it.”

Not exactly doing it for you? It’s OK. Freedom is more than just a concept. There’s more:

  • Financial freedom: Essentially, the Rangers and A’s are swapping “bad” contracts and making the money wash. Essentially, but not exactly. The Rangers will send Oakland two payments over the next two seasons. The net is a reduction in 2022 payroll obligations of about $7 million to approximately $32 million.

That is significant for a team with eyes on a star-studded class of potential free agents, headed by shortstops such as Los Angeles’ Kyle Seager and Colorado itinerant Trevor Story, who makes a more permanent residence in Irving.

Developments of the week also seem to indicate there may be another home-grown potential free agent after 2021: Highland Park’s Clayton Kershaw. With the Dodgers’ signing of Trevor Bauer Friday and Kershaw’s contract expiring after the coming season, a potential return home looms as a more realistic possibility.

“I’ll let you know in about 12 months,” Daniels said when asked about the significance of additional financial freedom.

  • Freeing Josh Jung: Andrus’ departure could – could – have an impact on the arrival of top prospect Josh Jung.

Andrus was going to get a chance to play third base this spring. The Rangers will sign somebody else, probably Jake Lamb or Brock Holt, to help out. But there will be no ties of any type to whoever takes the spot.

Jung hasn’t played above Class A. But he will be in major league spring training as an invited non-roster player. The Rangers would like him to go and play some traditional minor league baseball, but the structure of the minor league season, at this point, is anything but certain.

He’s not going to start the season in the big leagues. But the over/under on when he does arrive just got moved up.

“Could it, as a domino effect, create some additional opportunity for him during the season,” Daniels said. “Sure, that’s a possibility but it doesn’t change our feelings right now. It doesn’t change how we view him for April 1. We are very, very high on him, but we’re also aware he has not played above A ball. We’d like to give him that opportunity to get his feet wet before we move forward there.”

The Rangers are all about moving forward these days.

For all the memories he’d created, Elvis Andrus was firmly rooted as part of their past.

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Difficult as trading Elvis Andrus was, Rangers can now move forward without ghosts of the past on the bench - The Dallas Morning News
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