Several reports today say that a deal is in place to trade Hank Blalock & John Danks to the Florida Marlins for Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell. My guess is the Rangers have soured on Blalock given the fact at how badly he slumps in the back end of the season. Lowell I’ve always liked. He had a terrible year in 2005, hopefully that’s not where he is headed career wise. Josh Beckett can certainly help us, that’s for sure (provided he stays healthy). Danks is unproven of course, but you never want to give away stud pitching.
As I write this, it’s the first I’ve heard of it, so I haven’t had time to digest it. Don’t want to give up one of our young players, but if we need pitching, then you have to give up something, it’s just my gut says that Blalock and a stud pitcher is too much. We’ll see what happens. I just hope that we get some cash back as Lowell is owed $18 mil over the next two years. You put that with the money we’re paying the Yankees for Arod ($6 Mil), and the money we owe Phil Nevin in 2006 ($12 Mil), and that means we’d be on the books for $27 million for Nevin, Arod & Lowell. That’s a lot.
It appears that this is supposed to happen “by Monday”. If this goes down, I guess Hank’s Homies are done.
News Stories:
Dallas Morning News
Dallas Morning News #2 (Monday morning)
Ft Worth Star Telegram (Sat Night)
Ft Worth Star Telegram #2 (Sun Morning)
Texas Rangers Site
Fla Marlins Site
Sportsticker via SI.com
There’s been a few moves the last couple of days, mostly procedural, some coaching – I’ll catch up on Monday most likely.