With the offseason in full tilt, the Texas Rangers face several arbitration cases before the 2014 season begins. The Rangers rarely go to arbitration with their players, as it's never a fun thing to do for either party because the club basically has to tear down the player to argue for a lower salary than the player wants to accept.
Mitch Moreland is an interesting case this winter. He's a homegrown kid who has been given opportunity after opportunity to secure the everyday first baseman job, and due to both ineffectiveness and injury, he's left the position as a huge question mark this offseason.
Ideally, the Rangers would like to have Moreland around. He's still young, he's good with the glove and despite his offensive warts he does have undeniable power, setting a career highs with 23 homers and 60 RBIs.
The deadline to tender an offer for arb-eligible players is Dec. 2, so if the Rangers get past that date and haven't locked up Moreland again, he could be dealt. But that won't happen unless the Rangers sign a free-agent first baseman first, and the names out there aren't anything spectacular with Kendrys Morales and Mike Napoli highlighting the free-agent first basemen.
MLBTradeRumors.com projects Moreland to get tendered an offer for $2.7 million, which would still be decent value for what Moreland gives you, which is strong defense and a powerful, yet streaky bat.
