How nice would it be to have some life in the Rangers' struggling offense right now? There are some recent departures who could be helping.
The Texas Rangers' lineup saw quite a bit of turnover this year since last season, and so far this year — a quarter through the season — the results haven't been good. Prince Fielder is finished, heck, even Adrian Beltre got off to a slow start. The Rangers are near the bottom of the American League in runs scored, and the team sits in third place heading into Wednesday's game.
The one departed bat that really stings the Rangers this year, so far at least, has been Nelson Cruz. After the free-agent market fell through the roof on Cruz, he settled for a one-year deal with Baltimore for $8 million after the Rangers made a late run at him as a full-time DH. He wasn't ready to be a full-time DH yet, so he took Baltimore's offer to play right field more often.
So far this season, Cruz has been the best power hitter in baseball, and his bat would look awfully nice in the heart of the Rangers' order, especially with the way the Prince Fielder addition fell flat.
He currently leads baseball with 17 homers and leads the AL with 46 RBIs and a .632 slugging percentage. This shouldn't be much of a surprise, as Cruz has always raked when he's heatlhy. The only problem with Cruz is that he rarely stays healthy for a full season, and there's probably still at least one DL stint on the horizon for the former Rangers slugger.
And remember, Cruz missed the final 50 games of the regular season in 2013 after being one of the team's top hitters up to that point, while serving a PED suspension, so there was definitely reason to doubt what Cruz would be moving forward.
But regardless, Jon Daniels has to be secretly pounding his head against a wall somewhere deep in the throws of Globe Life Park knowing he could've had Cruz at such a bargain-basement price.
