The Texas Rangers clearly are terrified at the prospect of losing Nelson Cruz for 50 games due to his connection to the Biogenesis scandal because according to reports, they are willing to trade Elvis Andrus, Joe Nathan and even the newly acquired Matt Garza to get some power back in the lineup.
According to Hardball Talk, the team would consider trading Garza as well as nearly anyone on the roster, including Andrus and Nathan. The report says that the team could go after Carlos Beltran or other names like Andre Ethier, Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury or Nick Markakis and the main reason would be to bring in some offense to help the team when the suspension gets handed down.
Garza was a prime trade piece for the Cubs with a record of 7-1 with a 2.95 ERA and now that he has gone 1-0 with a 1.88 ERA in two starts for his new team, the Rangers may try to flip him again. The team is struggling to score at times and while the pitching needs depth as well, the team realizes that losing home run and RBI leader Nelson Cruz with his 24 homers and 72 RBIs will be hard to overcome. The team already knows the suspension is coming and now that he left last night's game with a quad injury, which makes the move even more pressing now. The team can't afford to lose him longer than the suspension and clearly they are scrambling to figure out what's next.
The team is now a chunk behind the Oakland A's for the division and that likely is out of reach and the team ranks just 13th in runs scored in the league and 12th in on base percentage. The Rangers are 10th in batting average and ninth in slugging and to keep those numbers up they will need more power. The Cubs just dealt Garza and they have more players on the block and another option could be the White Sox for Alex Rios or Adam Dunn or even the Giants for Hunter Pence. The team wants to add some power into the lineup for when they lose Cruz and clearly based on the report they are willing to look down any avenue for it.
