JD could do no wrong during The Rangers WS runs. However the past few seasons it seems like every move he makes is the wrong one in the long run. Not feeling too confident in this club's future.

And now we lose out on Abreu....

He'll start trading the farm away, with Ryan gone. CJ Edwards will be a long term ace for the cubs.

I don't recall why the Rangers didn't resign Napoli. His deal with the Sox was reduced from 3 yrs to 1 after it was discovered he had a degenerative condition in both hips.

Napoli wanted a long-term deal and wanted to be primarily a catcher. JD was unwilling, AFAIK, on both accounts.

Both of those appear to have supported JD's decision.

Napoli never played catcher for the Sox.

Napoli reconciled the abandoned contract and took a 1 year deal.

I think if Napoli was willing to play 1B before signing with Boston... he'd have been a Ranger.

I like CJ Edwards and agree that was a loss. He has ridiculous numbers. However, he couldn't pitch for the Rangers in 2013 and we needed a SP. He is still 2-3 years away. At 22, there are a number of players ahead of him in our depth charts. The question is... when you project CJ Edwards breaking into the Bigs, in say... 2 years and solidifies himself in a MLB rotation in the 3rd year... you are talking 2016. Who in the rotation does he replace in 2016? Or 2017?

At MLB:
Perez (22)
Tepesch (25)

At AA:
Luke Jackson (22)

And several more that are at\near the CJ Edwards talent level. Go look at Myrtle Beach.

With Perez (22-2018), Harrison (28-2017), Darvish (27-2017), Holland (27-2017) and Ogando (30-2016) all under contract through at least 2016... it stings... but not worth fretting.

If Luke Jackson replaces Ogando after 2016... that's 4 years away. Jackson will be 26.

Yep, I think it was more bad luck than a bad decision. If out of the gate he knew he was going to be 1B/dh type on a 1-2 year deal, I think they would have resigned him in a heartbeat.

Instead, the Rangers decided to move on as he initially got a fat multi-year deal (3 yr/$27M) from the Sox. Having had him on the roster, I think the Rangers also already had suspicions/concerns about his hip issues. Then his physical blew up his Sox deal, but at that point, Nap and the Sox still seemed dedicated to making something work out, which they did. The Rangers inked AJP a few weeks after Napoli signed the big deal with Boston, so they'd already moved on by the time the hip and reworked deal played out with Boston and Nap (late January).

Also, let's face it. Nap was a rock star for this team in 2011, but he didn't bring all that much to the table in 2012.

[This message has been edited by DannyDuberstein (edited 10/18/2013 1:55p).]

Can't blame JD for passing on 6 for 68 for Abreu.

As for Nap, what the Rangers really needed was a 4 out of 5 days catcher. Nap couldn't do that because of his hip. And he didn't want to DH full time and the team committed to Mitch at 1st.

So, passing on Nap with a 3 year deal made some sense given their needs in the field, but it's now time to do something about Mitch or have a plan B ready to go pretty quickly next year.

The original napoli deal with boston was 3 for $39MM, not 3/27

quote:

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Napoli wanted a long-term deal and wanted to be primarily a catcher.

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Napoli knew his catching days were over. He wanted to play everyday. He turned down more money from the Rangers to be a platoon 1B/DH, to instead be an everyday 1B for Boston.

His 3 and $39M got blown up because he wasn't going to be able to play any catcher.

They didn't re-sign him because they didn't want to beat 3 years at 39 million.

That contract got "blown up", but you can't blame the Rangers for not foreseeing that they'd have a chance to re-structure that contract.

By the way, Napoli still earned $13 million this year. His re-structured contract included an $8 million incentive for being on the active roster for 165 days.

Nm

[This message has been edited by DannyDuberstein (edited 10/22/2013 8:19p).]

quote:

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That contract got "blown up", but you can't blame the Rangers for not foreseeing that they'd have a chance to re-structure that contract

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They still made offers to him after the big contract fell through.

True, but I think they got beat financially and otherwise originally. At the point when the Rangers were willing to guarantee, at least, more money, Boston had pretty well sold Napoli on being a Red Sock.

Had the Rangers gotten on the financial front foot originally, maybe he stays in Texas.

I also think people quickly forget that 2012 Napoli wasn't 2011 Napoli.

2011 Napoli: 113 games, 1.046 OPS
2012 Napoli: 108 games, 0.842 OPS

While it's certainly been a VERY worthwhile investment for the Red Sox, there's plenty of valid reasons why the Rangers weren't really to shell out the big bucks for a guy who missed 1/3rd of the season and had his OPS drop back down to "very good" (as opposed to "holy ****"), especially once health concerns popped up.

Texas sure could have used him, but at the time it was the smart move not to offer any more $$$.

JD got lucky getting a lot in the Teixeira deal and signing Beltre, plus getting Rios for little.

Unfortunately that doesn't counter the bad deals for Soto, Dempster, and Garza.

Now watch JD fire Washington on November 1 and hire Matheny as his replacement (the one manager who makes Wash look like a genius).

What about the Soto and Dempster deals were bad? Regardless of outcome, they filled necessary holes for reasonably low cost.