FORT WORTH, Texas _ Count the trade of Cleveland Indians pitcher Corey Kluber as a Rangers' win wrapped neatly in a crisp, white flag.
Because of the Texas Rangers' baffling inability to develop top-line starting pitchers of their own, and a few high-profile free agent misses, general manager Jon Daniels had no choice.
He has to take on a 34-year-old pitcher who was limited to seven starts last season, and is due $17.5 million in 2020, because there is no way else to attract a man of his ability to the Rangers.
The lure of the new stadium did not, predictably, attract a single top-tier free agent this winter. And that was before it caught on fire.
In exchange for Kluber the Rangers sent outfielder and all-time nice guy Delino DeShields with prospect reliever Emmanuel Clase to Cleveland. This is a case of the Indians giving up on Kluber, because they think he's done and no longer worth a big contract.
The Rangers have never totally trusted DeShields, and are happy to ship him to another big league roster.
This is not quite a desperate move, but rather a case of a GM who has to do something. They can not move into the Burning Rangers Parks Mall 2.0 without a new name. They need another, too.
"I think it helps. We're going into a new stadium. We really haven't been winning as much as we want to the last couple of years," Rangers outfielder Joey Gallo said on Monday as the team visited with some of the kids at Cook's Children's Hospital in Fort Worth.
"So, you want to make a splash. You want to go into a new stadium with a roster that can make a run at the playoffs, and contending. It kinda gets the fans excited again. It gets us players excited that we're in contending mode. So, yeah, I think it was somewhat necessary."
You heard it from Joey Gallo, the Texas Rangers are in contending mode. So that means they will have to be better than the Oakland A's, Houston Astros and Anaheim Angels for a playoff spot.
They won't be. If the Rangers have a winning record, which would be their first since 2016, it might just be time for another new stadium.
Provided it all goes right, and it never does, the Rangers will have one of the better starting rotations in baseball.
Kluber is an upgrade over anyone on this staff, provided he's healthy. He suffered a broken arm after being hit by a line drive on May 1. He also had an oblique strain last season.
Before 2019, he was one of the top pitchers in the American League, with two Cy Young awards.
When he is right, Corey Kluber is better than the Rangers top two starters, Lance Lynn, and Mike Minor.
"When you look at our rotation, it's five really solid arms," Gallo said. "That's always going to give us a chance to win games no matter what. We are going to have a really solid team."
Define solid ...
