If available, would Nathan Eovaldi be the best pitcher on the trade market?
The Rangers are still only 5 games behind the Mariners for 1st place in the AL West, but if they decide to sell, they'd have plenty of pitchers that would interest other teams. If they made him available, would 2023 postseason hero Nathan Eovaldi bring back the biggest return?
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00:00Let's talk about what I didn't get to in Mike Likes It, and that is the market for starting
00:21pitching.
00:22Now, I don't know what the Rangers are going to do, no clue, but let's look at it this
00:26way.
00:27Right now, Michael Lorenzen, Andrew Heaney, and possibly Nathan Ivaldi are all free agents
00:33at the end of the season.
00:34The reason I say possibly Nathan Ivaldi is there's a mutual option slash player option,
00:40but he has to hit, I believe, 300 innings in these two seasons, and he is going to be
00:45right on the borderline of doing it.
00:47If he gets hurt, if he misses, let's say, two starts in the second half, he will not
00:51hit it and become a free agent.
00:52The other thing, too, is Ivaldi, after pitching a team to a World Series championship and
00:57having another solid year when he's healthy this year, he might want to be a free agent.
01:02He might not want a one-year, $20 million deal.
01:04He might want a two- or three-year deal, so I don't even know if Nathan Ivaldi is even
01:09going to accept the mutual option, so he's kind of a free agent.
01:14Then John Gray, after this year, has one year and $15 million left.
01:18From what I understand, his teams are interested in Nathan Ivaldi, probably number one, because
01:24they saw what he can do in the playoffs when healthy.
01:28I think teams are interested in John Gray, Andrew Heaney, because of their flexibility.
01:39We can use him as a starter in the regular season, and we can really use him as a bullpen
01:44piece in the playoffs if needed.
01:46I think people are somewhat interested in Michael Lorenzen, because he's off to another
01:50good start.
01:51He had a rough ... He's starting tonight.
01:53He walked 13 guys in his last 15 innings, and in his last three starts, he has 13 walks
01:57in 15 innings.
01:58It feels like that was an issue even when he was pitching, exceedingly well.
02:02True, but it became a little bit more of an issue recently.
02:06He got traded last year from Detroit to Philadelphia, and went to Philadelphia, and did not do well.
02:11Teams are probably taking that into consideration if the Rangers are going to trade pitchers.