Earlier this week, Michael Young, who has been the heart and soul of the Texas Rangers for the past decade, requested a trade from the team with whom he has spent his entire career.
Young, who has shifted around the infield throughout his baseball career and played third base last season, had initially agreed to become the primary designated hitter for the Rangers after they signed all-star third baseman Adrian Beltre to a six-year, $96 million deal at the beginning of January.
Apparently, he now has other ideas.
Now, based on what has been said, Young claims that the fact that he was moving to designated hitter did not prompt his request for a trade, but rather how he was “manipulated and misled” behind the scenes by the Rangers front office. Whatever happened, it must have been massive considering that Young has essentially been the team’s captain and the biggest veteran presence in that clubhouse for a long time.
Young has been a constant contributor to the Rangers since he first started playing for them regularly in 2001. He’s had four seasons of at least 20 homeruns (2004, 2005, 2009 and 2010) and led the league in batting with a .331 average in 2005. Even though the team picked up Adrian Beltre, (.321 average, 28 homeruns, 102 RBIs in 2010) they are going to be losing a lot of production with a trade of Young and the loss of Vladimir Guerrero (.300 average, 29 homeruns, 115 RBIs) to free agency.
The Rangers have made no progress on getting a trade done for Young. He has a clause in his contract that only allows a trade without his approval to eight teams, (The New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins, Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers, Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) and Young does not fit in with most of these teams and their budgets. The Yankees are set across the infield and the Cardinals do not have the money considering their offseason signing of Lance Berkman and their attempt to resign Albert Pujols.
The Rockies are said to have interest in the veteran infielder, but no deal is imminent. Young would thrive in the hitter’s park that is Coors Field, just as he has over the past 10 seasons at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.
On the Rangers’ side of things, it makes a lot of sense to trade Young. The main reason in which it could work out in the favor of the front office is through payroll cutting. After all, the team could use as much money as it can get, especially after their signing of reigning American League MVP Josh Hamilton to a 2-year, $24 million deal.
The bottom line of this whole situation is this; the Rangers have to do everything in their power to trade Young. Going into the season with a player who has gone from the soul to the broken heart of the team is only going to create clubhouse problems. Trying try to get a good deal in return for the all-star infielder is pertinent for the front office, but given his massive contract, ($48 million from 2011-2013) this could be a difficult task. Clearly, the Rangers messed up somewhere along the line, and now they have got to fix the problem by banishing the player who, up until a few short days ago, was the face of the franchise.
I know his numbers were good last year, but Beltre always does that when he's fishing for a new contract. Does one year really justify that long of a guaranteed contract?
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for Young. It kind of reminds me of how the Astros treated Craig Biggio, but worse.
Beltre will probably put up slightly better numbers than he did throughout most of his years in Seattle, but only because Rangers Ballpark in Arlington is a much better hitter's park than Safeco. I'm really not sure what the Rangers were thinking.
ReplyDeleteIt must be worse than Biggio with the Astros, seeing as its gotten so bad to the point where Young is requesting (or, more or less, demanding) a trade. I don't know how any team could treat a player like him that way.