Surprise, it's Will Venable.
It was a surprising move on a few levels, though the repercussions may end up closer to Jorge Cantu or Mike Gonzalez than Bengie Molina or Alex Rios.
If Will Venable provides Texas something along the lines of what Jeff Francoeur did in his two-month stint (.340/.357/.491 in 56 plate appearances plus a very big RBI double off David Price in Tampa), it’s all good.
Clubs around the league were surprised Venable cleared trade waivers, Ken Rosenthal (Fox Sports) notes, and Dennis Lin (San Diego Union-Tribune) reports that “a few teams” were in on the 32-year-old before “the Rangers jumped in [Monday] night.” On Tuesday, Texas sent Low A catcher Marcus Greene and a more noteworthy player to be named later (and likely soon) to San Diego for Venable, a decent bat who can play all three outfield spots reasonably well, and is owed about $1.1 million the rest of the way this season, after which he’ll be a free agent.
The trade was also a bit surprising in that Venable hits left-handed, further tilting the Rangers’ roster in that direction, but maybe that’s an indication that Texas isn’t optimistic about Josh Hamilton’s left knee or Leonys Martin’s right wrist, which was examined by a specialist yesterday — or that the club is simply protecting itself in case of bad news on either front.
Even Cantu and Gonzalez each helped Texas win a big game in a playoff season.
It’s a little surprising because the move not only cost the Rangers Greene and the player to be named (more on that shortly), but also Michael Choice, whose spot on the 40-man roster was sacrificed. Following a standout camp with the Rangers in 2014, just after he’d arrived in a deal (with Chris Bostick) for Craig Gentry (and Josh Lindblom), the local product didn’t hit in the big leagues (.181/.249/.319) or in AAA (.250/.329/.415), and he’ll be 26 this off-season.
It hasn’t been long since Choice was considered a Top 100 prospect in the game, and chances would seem reasonably strong that some club takes a flier on him following his designation for assignment. If he were to clear, the Rangers would likely outright him to Round Rock and hope that something clicks, but odds are his stint in this organization has ended for now.
Interestingly, Choice’s departure from the roster clears a spot for Venable, but there will need to be another casualty this morning as room is made for Derek Holland’s activation off the 60-day disabled list, as he is scheduled to make this afternoon’s start. The Rangers optioned Chi Chi Gonzalez to Round Rock after his start last night, presumably to make room on the active roster for Holland, but that doesn’t solve the 40-man roster issue.
In August, when you see a player to be named later made part of a trade, it often means that it’s a player on the 40-man roster who’s been agreed on between the two clubs but who hasn’t yet cleared post-July 31 trade waivers. The process would be that the team sending that player away would run him out on trade waivers and the receiving team would put in a claim to facilitate the finalization of the deal. If a team with higher claim priority (than the Padres, in this case, meaning 14 American League teams plus eight National League teams) puts in a claim on the player in question, the sending team (Texas) would just pull him back and convey him to the receiving team (the Padres) after the season.
Notably, in that case, the rules dictate that the player cannot appear in the big leagues in the interim.
Assuming that’s the scenario, here are the players on the 40-man who are not in the big leagues: pitchers Alex Claudio, Jon Edwards, Gonzalez, Luke Jackson, Phil Klein, Nick Martinez, Roman Mendez, Anthony Ranaudo, and Tanner Scheppers; infielders Hanser Alberto and Joey Gallo; and outfielder Ryan Rua. I’m not listing injured players, the only young one of which I can imagine the Padres showing interest in being Jurickson Profar. There’s no chance he’s in this deal.
There’s also no chance that Gallo, Gonzalez, Jackson, Martinez, or Scheppers would be included, and Alberto or Rua would surprise me, too.
That leaves relievers Claudio, Edwards, Klein, and Mendez (the only one out of options), and the starter Ranaudo, and it’s a safe bet that when A.J. Preller tells Corey Brock (MLB.com) that the player is “someone the organization ‘views as a key piece to the deal’ . . . [s]omeone closer to [the] big leagues,” he’s talking about one of those five arms.
If the player to be named isn’t identified in the next day or so, then keep your eye on those five — and if any of them returns to Arlington after rosters expand in a couple weeks (or before), you can scratch them off the list.
Here’s the thing: If you’re moving Choice and Greene and a shuttle pitcher with big league experience and upside for a rental like Will Venable, you’re obviously going for it. There’s a good chance, like Cantu and Molina and Francoeur, that his stint in Texas will last one summer (and fall?), and that he and Yu Darvish will never be on the field together, but that hammers home the point. This trade is going to favor the Padres in 2016. For Texas, this one is very clearly about 2015.
And the idea just two weeks ago that Texas would be making an August trade that was all about 2015 is probably the biggest, and best, surprise of all.