Newberg Report Mailbag v.8.

This week: Robbie Grossman, Leody Taveras, Johnny Cueto, and more — plus some trade talk as we approach the second quarter of the season.

I know it probably doesn’t feel like it, but the Rangers have won four straight series. They’ve navigated an absurd number of personnel challenges, and more than survived. They’re a season-high five games over .500, and a season-high 1.5 games up in the AL West.

Nearly 40 games in: Slow clap.

Let’s get to this week’s nine.

Note: Some questions have been edited lightly for length and clarity.

Todd Snively: Thoughts on the Robbie Grossman trade? I think I understand why we got him, but I’m not too keen on who we gave up.

Clint Carter: Robbie Grossman? That's it. That's the question.

Two things here.

Is Grossman capable of helping this lineup out in a meaningful way? Absolutely.

Did the White Sox do well to flip him for what they got from Texas? Absolutely.

The Rangers were hitting just .231 as a team against left-handed pitching at the time of the trade, with a .631 OPS. Not good. Part of that is missing Josh Jung and, even though he hasn’t found a real rhythm yet, Wyatt Langford. Part is Corey Seager’s .170/.188/.234 (.422 OPS) line against southpaws. Part is Evan Carter was sitting at 2 for 23 going (both hits staying on the infield) into Wednesday, with just one walk.

Grossman, if maximized, can really help. He hit .309/.416/.536 (.953 OPS) in a significant 137-PA sample against lefties for Texas in 2023. Was it an outlier? I suppose you could say that, but he has a career .809 OPS against lefties in more than 1,200 plate appearances. Replicating that would be more than acceptable.

But yeah, Grossman went the entire winter — and all of spring training — without a job. Chicago signed him to a Triple-A contract on Opening Day. Presumably the Rangers could have done the same, and maybe they tried; but maybe Grossman saw a clearer opportunity with the White Sox to play himself back to the big leagues than with the Rangers. And if so, he played his cards right; within a week, the White Sox went down and got him, having placed Eloy Jimenez on the injured list.

And this is not Cole Ragans for Aroldis Chapman. (On either end.) I had Anthony David Maui La'akea “Bubba” Hoopii-Tuionetoa at No. 50 in my Rangers prospect rankings coming into the season (though he’d be closer to No. 30 right now, with his current streak of 26 strikeouts in 22 innings without zero earned runs [and only 11 hits and seven walks] dating back to his Arizona Fall League run and continuing with Double-A Frisco). The righty is going to pitch in a big-league bullpen, maybe this year. Could he be Jacob Latz or Justin Slaten? Sure. But could he be Nick Snyder or Ronny Henriquez? Yep.

It’s just too bad that the Rangers had to part with a legitimate relief prospect, with three option years and six service years ahead of him — and potentially journeyman lefty reliever Kolton Ingram as well, as he was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Grossman — when they presumably had their own chance to park Grossman at Round Rock and have him ready for an opportunity like this.

I wish Hoopii-Tuionetoa well. I’ll double down on those wishes the first time Grossman ties a game with a big late-inning blast off a lefty.

(Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)

Nate Sanchez: What's the deal with Carter hitting left-handed pitchers? Confidence? Mechanics? And how can they expect him to get better at hitting left-handed pitching if he never faces it? Carter becoming a platoon outfielder would be a fairly disappointing development.

Confidence is probably seeping into the mix, but at its foundation is most likely experience. Carter played very little showcase ball in high school and didn’t play collegiately. There’s a good chance he’d never faced more than a couple pro-upside lefties before turning pro. In the minors, he had only 259 plate appearances against lefties (hitting .240) — but how many of those pitchers will end up in the big leagues?

Expecting Carter to get better is to trust his ability to adjust. And on the subject of trust, I have unwavering belief that Bruce Bochy will get him plenty of work against lefties this year. But this team is built to win, and expects to win, and there will be situations, if not in terms of making out a lineup then within games, when Bochy is not going to lock in on development at the expense of maximizing chances to win a game, or a key at-bat.

Taylor Empkey: With the current state of the rotation, can you provide any insight on Johnny Cueto? How long would you expect it takes him to build up in Arizona? I’m assuming he was throwing before signing with the club.

My understanding is Cueto is at least one or two weeks away from seeing official action.

Mark McKinney:  Josh Smith: What does this surprise offense do to his status as integral part vs. trade bait?

Good question. I think Smith’s tremendous start in 2024 makes him too valuable, even if his numbers start to regress some, to move during the season. His at-bats are fantastic. He’s hitting the ball hard. He plays defense on half the field, and it’s plus at shortstop and third base. He runs well, and can get a bunt down. I shudder to think where the offense would be without him stepping in when Jung went down.

But the offseason? I can’t imagine Texas moving Smith for prospects, or for a pitcher who fits the back of the rotation or middle of the bullpen. But in trade talks for any impact player this winter, you can be sure that teams will ask about him. And even then, the Rangers may be reluctant to trade him. With his versatility — and now his offense, which is less fluky than you might think given what he did in the minor leagues (.305/.421/.500 with 22 home runs, 39 doubles, 41 stolen bases, 101 walks, and 101 RBI in 166 games) — he’s a GM’s and managers’ dream.

Smith is certainly not going to be untouchable, but Texas will surely make him tough to pry loose this winter.

Tyler Bailey:  I don't want to give up on either of them, but what do you think about including Jack Leiter, Owen White, and then a bat (like Justin Foscue or Ezequiel Duran) for a young starting pitching prospect? I don't know that value gets you a big league starter, but certainly a highly ranked/thought of guy?

You’d be selling low on all four, and that’s not good business. And if you’re the other team, why would you trade a pitching prospect with a meaningfully better profile than Leiter?

Just don’t see this type of deal appealing to either side, at least until two or three of the Rangers names you listed pick things up.

Rodney Lawson: I know Marcus Semien gets more attention for the A’s being his former team, but if I am correct, Jonah Heim came to us from the A’s in the Elvis Andrus trade and he was huge in this series as well.

First, Semien is from the Bay Area and so there’s that added storyline. On top of that, Heim played 13 games for Oakland — Semien played six years there — and it was the catcher’s third organization. Drafted by the Orioles . . . traded to the Rays . . . traded to the A’s . . . traded to the Rangers.

And what a trade that last one was. Even if righthander Dane Acker doesn’t carry his breakout season with Frisco all the way to Arlington.

William: With all these rookies being called up to fill in for these injury situations, how is it affecting their service time?

Not a lot. The ones who were already on the 40-man roster (White, Foscue, Cole Winn, Grant Anderson, Yerry Rodriguez, Sam Huff, Jonathan Ornelas) were already on option to start the season and the option for each lasts all year. The ones who have been added from off the roster (Leiter, Davis Wendzel) are only exhausting their first option. (Actually, not yet: Leiter needs another couple days on the farm before the option counts from a procedural standpoint, and Wendzel has yet to go back down at all.)

As far as MLB service time goes, you control a player for six full years in the big leagues. No point in worrying about that sort of long-term impact with any of these players. They’re all foreseeably here for as long as Texas wants them to be.

Jeremy Cabler: Your gut feeling on what happens with Leody Taveras in the long run? Is it as simple as just trading him in the off-season for whatever we can get, or stick with him and pray?

You stick with him now. I can’t imagine a move this season — at least to another team. I can imagine a scenario in which he finishes the year as a fourth outfielder — if, health permitting, the outfield is eventually Langford-Carter-Adolis Garcia, with DH filled most nights with Smith as DH against righties and Grossman against lefties — and then is made available in trade talks this winter, which I will get into in much more depth in a story I’m working on now.

The good news is he’s hitting right now (.357/.438/.571 [1.009 OPS] in his last dozen games), locked into one of those streaks that highlighted his 2023 as well.

Greg McDearmon: I am curious, when the team travels, if that is ever managed to create an added night at home, or do they always fly into the next city as early as possible? And will they try to stay home for an entire off-day? For instance, after the May 19 home game against the Angels, when will they leave for Philadelphia? Monday? Or Tuesday morning? I assume (after they played the Wednesday doubleheader in Oakland), they left for Denver regardless of the hour to get some off-time there on Thursday .

Greg, good question. I passed it along to the Rangers’ longtime Director of Travel Josh Shelton. His response: “We always fly immediately postgame to wherever we’re traveling to. That way the team can enjoy a full off-day without any distraction.”

OK, gang. Got our own off-day out of the way (with huge Mavs and Stars Game 2 wins providing plenty of distraction), and now it’s on to Colorado for the Rangers before a Guardians-Angels homestand and then a big roadie to Philadelphia and Minnesota.

Back on Sunday with a Mother’s Day edition of Hops.