The Texas Rangers made one of the bigger moves of the trade season when they acquired ace Cole Hamels from Philadelphia, a deal that became official on Friday morning.
They were also expected to be heavy in the market to trade starting pitcher Yovani Gallardo, who will be a free agent in the winter. Gallardo, in his first season with Texas, has been pretty dang solid, his last three starts notwithstanding, and has seemingly made a pretty rare successful transition from being a career-long National League pitcher to the AL.
Three teams, in particular, were reportedly showing the most interest in the Fort Worth Trimble Tech grad — the Blue Jays, Cubs and Dodgers — but the Rangers didn't get what they were looking for in return for Gallardo, who will likely turn into a compensation draft pick when he signs elsewhere in free agency.
For the short term, Gallardo gives the Rangers a solid pitcher and gives them a rotation of Cole Hamels, Gallardo, Colby Lewis, Martin Perez and Nick Martinez, with Derek Holland set to return in the next two or three weeks.
All of that, and the Rangers are only four games out of the AL Wild Card race with a suddenly revived offense and a couple of solid bullpen options coming in Jake Diekman and Sam Dyson, who the Rangers got from the Marlins at the deadline Friday.
Are the Rangers going to play in the postseason this year? It's highly unlikely, but keeping Gallardo allows them to go for it and four games isn't a ridiculous deficit with two months still left in the season. The Rangers were prepared to move Gallardo for the right price, but it was prudent to keep him if they didn't get exactly what they wanted.
