With the MLB Winter Meetings having kicked off on Monday, one of the big storylines coming out of Texas Rangers camp is the potential trade market for first baseman/designated hitter Mitch Moreland. And one of the key free agent departures they're supposedly interested in bringing back is first baseman/designated hitter Mike Napoli.
So which will it be? Well, it won't be both, unless Prince Fielder is moved in a blockbuster trade.
Napoli and the Rangers have expressed mutual interest in him coming back after he was brought on in August of last year and helped revitalize a struggling lineup with his right-handed bat stuck in the middle of a lefty-heavy lineup.
Moreland is coming off a career year in which he finally stayed healthy and is relatively cheap in 2016, as he'll cost around $5 million after he goes to arbitration.
Moreland has long been tied to the Pittsburgh Pirates, largely because Pirates skipper Clint Hurdle was the Rangers' hitting coach in 2010 when the Rangers made their first of consecutive World Series appearances and Moreland made his big-league debut.
The most logical result of all this, as great as Moreland was last year and despite the fact he's younger than Napoli and a better defensive first baseman (not that Napoli is a bad one), would be Moreland being traded and Napoli being signed on as a full-time first baseman and a right-handed presence in the heart of the lineup.
