11/21/24
February 20, 2011
Michael Young Wants Out of Texas: Texas Rangers infielder Michael Young reported to spring training on time but is angry at team general manager Jon Daniels and expecting a trade. The Rangers signed Adrian Beltre during the off season, which cost Young his spot at third base, but something took place behind the scenes after he agreed to move to designated hitter. "A lot of things led up to this point," Young said. "I thought I would have been traded by now." Danny Knobler of CBS Sports doesn't believe a trade will happen this spring: "The Rangers won't make a deal that weakens their 2011 team, and no other kind of deal exists for them."
I agree, if he really wants out he ought to immediately waive the no trade clause.
Living here in Dallas, I find it odd how the Rangers are handling this. Coming off their playoff run, but then losing some key players, I would have thought they'd want to keep one of the fans' favorites happy. If they dump Young, and then anyone in the infield goes down, it may come back to haunt them.
posted by dviking at 08:05 PM on February 20, 2011
To be fair, after signing his last big contract, Young has been pushed out of three different positions in less than 3 seasons:
shortstop (by Elvis Andrus) third base (by Adrian Beltre) designated hitter (by Mike Napoli)
That last one is unofficial, but the writing is on the wall (as Texas already have many catchers, and Napoli is better suited towards 1B/DH at this point).
posted by grum@work at 10:50 PM on February 20, 2011
if he really wants out he ought to immediately waive the no trade clause.
Would be a huge mistake on his part. Players put too much importance on this clause to just throw it away.
If the Rangers come up with a trade partner he can veto or say yes at that point. He wants to be traded; he's also been a loyal player for years. The two sides need to work together. That's not the same as throwing yourselves to the wolves.
posted by justgary at 01:01 AM on February 21, 2011
To be fair, after signing his last big contract, Young has been pushed out of three different positions in less than 3 seasons
To be fair, his performance also fell off a cliff over that time period too.
posted by yerfatma at 08:07 AM on February 21, 2011
Teams that stick with fan favorites too long fade faster. I am surprised that Young was pushed out so quickly, but Beltre's an upgrade at 3B and DH is not a hard position to fill.
posted by rcade at 09:15 AM on February 21, 2011
Never debated whether Beltre was an upgrade, however, Young does have a fair amount of value as a backup for the infield.
The Dallas baseball fan is pretty fickle, and I just would have thought they would have found a way to handle this better than what they did.
posted by dviking at 10:03 AM on February 21, 2011
As a Rangers fan since 1974 I don't think of the fan base as fickle. We've supported a lot of bad teams and suffered through an enormous amount of bad management. Brad Corbett, Eddie Chiles and Tom Hicks were among the worst owners in the league.
posted by rcade at 10:16 AM on February 21, 2011
We'll see. Young is a pretty popular player, I see more #10 jerseys than any other number. I've gone to a lot of games over the past 8 years (was at every home game for 5 years due to a business deal with the concession group) I saw a lot of visitor jerseys in prior years. 2010 was the first year I saw any real emotion out of the fans (and, to be honest that was only after August).
I may be wrong, but I don't think the Rangers have done a great job of handling Young. Should be all momentum going into the new season. I just wish they had handled it better, seems like a phone call, or two, was all that was missing.
posted by dviking at 09:51 PM on February 21, 2011
Young is likely to be a victim of his salary and contract terms. He wants to be traded, but has a no trade clause that allows him to choose to some extent where he goes. There are some teams excepted from the clause, but the articles I have seen indicate that those teams have no reason to try to get Young (such as the Yankees) or have financial issues. One wonders if he would waive his no-trade clause just to get out. Also, Rangers probably overpaid him in current contract for being the heart and soul of the team. Owed $16 million a year for next three years. Though he is still a good player, it would be hard for a lot of teams to accept that kind of salary hit. And Rangers supposedly will not (or cannot afford to) pay that much for him to play for another team, unless they get something very good in return. He might be stuck in Texas unless he becomes such a malcontent that the Rangers have to trade him just to get rid of him.