The knee-jerk reaction is confusion. Why would the Rangers—a team that entered play on Sunday with a 39-51 record—be taking on a 31-year-old outfielder whose contract runs through 2019? Sure, they bucked the trend in 2015, when everyone thought they would be trading Yovani Gallardo, but instead they shoved their chips into the table and brought on Cole Hamels and Jake Diekman on their way to swiping the AL West pennant.
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But this isn’t 2015. This isn’t that AL West. And Austin Jackson isn’t Cole Hamels. So what gives?
First of all, we’ve been focusing on the wrong name, so let’s get the details straight first. The Rangers didn’t only trade for Austin Jackson. He’s just the most recognizable name in the deal. The whole deal is as follows, per the Rangers’ press release:
“The Texas Rangers today announced that the club has acquired right-handed pitchers Cory Gearrin and Jason Bahr and outfielder Austin Jackson from the San Francisco Giants for a player to be named later or cash considerations.”
And while we’re sorting all the facts into their proper place, we should note that the Rangers needed two spots on the 40-man roster to make room for Jackson and Gearrin, so Tony Barnette and Matt Bush have been added to the 60-day DL. Now that we have all that straight, let’s try to figure out… why?
The Giants traded Cory Gearrin and a minor leaguer to save Austin Jackson’s salary and get under the cap, I guess. Let’s see what Duggar can do. Gearrin is a good reliever, here comes Black.
— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) July 8, 2018
This deal seems to be along the same lines as SD’s trade with MINN to get a comp pick in last month’s draft, taking Phil Hughes on as the cost. Texas takes Jackson/Gearrin on for ’18/’19 ($7-8MM all told) to get Bahr.
— Jamey Newberg (@NewbergReport) July 8, 2018
Per source, #Rangers taking on rest of A. Jax’s $3M in ‘18 and $3M in ‘19 to buy SP prospect in Bahr. Also like Gearrin in middle relief with several bullpen arms on DL and others likely to be traded. #SFGiants get luxury-tax relief; Gearrin owed balance of $1.675M. https://t.co/gFnm4Qil6k
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 8, 2018
The name to pay attention to isn’t Jackson, though he’s a perfectly serviceable outfielder who could eat up a few innings at any of the three outfield positions if the Rangers needed such a thing. But in a conference call Sunday afternoon, Rangers GM Jon Daniels indicated that there’s a chance that Jackson won’t even play for the Rangers at all. In fact, Daniels said in the call that he has told Jackson to hold off reporting to the Rangers.
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Neither is the big story Cory Gearrin, not really, though he is a perfectly serviceable reliever. That’s something the Rangers need right now, with Bush, Barnette, and Chris Martin all on the DL and Matt Moore and Alex Claudio out of commission temporarily, thanks to Cole Hamels’ ⅔-inning start on Saturday. Furthermore, Jake Diekman and Keone Kela have both been mentioned as possible trade targets, so the depletion could continue in coming weeks.
Gearrin is 1-1 with a 4.20 ERA and a 1.533 WHIP this season, but in 2017, he was a stalwart member of the Giants’ bullpen, boasting a 1.99 ERA (1.250 WHIP) and 64 strikeouts in 68 innings.
But the real name to focus on here is Jason Bahr, the starting pitcher who will report to the High-A Down East Wood Ducks. Bahr is 23, which is a little older than most High-A pitchers, but he wasn’t drafted from the University of Central Florida until 2017, going to the Giants in the fifth round. More remarkable yet, Bahr had only made one appearance for the Knights before the 2017 season. After being drafted, Bahr struck out 36 hitters in 33 innings in short-season A-ball in Salem-Keizer, walking eleven.
This season, he has a combined 8-4 record with a 2.55 ERA in 84⅔ innings between A and High-A ball, though his ERA has actually been significantly lower (1.69) in three starts at the higher level than at the lower (2.75). He has struck out 103 hitters in that amount of time, walking 23, and keeping his WHIP at a 1.03. He drew mostly ground balls at the lower level, but he has given up three home runs in his 16 High-A innings. Opposing hitters are batting just .208 against Bahr this season.
Bahr’s scouting report says that his fastball sits in the low 90s as a starter, and there are reports that he can reach back for 96 MPH. He also throws a somewhat-slurvy slider and a changeup.
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In summation, it’s exactly what the tweets at the top of the article indicate, and what Daniels confirmed on the conference call: the Rangers took on Jackson’s salary and Gearrin as the price for acquiring Bahr.
Well, part of the price, anyway. As for the rest of the acquisition cost? “A player to be named later or cash considerations” is fairly vague, but this much we know, thanks to MLB’s rules for this sort of thing: it can’t be anyone who is currently on the 25-man roster, or anyone who is named to the 25-man roster at any point after today. Usually, the teams agree on a pool of players from whom the receiving team can choose. It’s not the first time the Rangers and Giants have done this in the last two seasons, actually: Sam Dyson went to San Francisco for a PTBNL in 2017, and the Rangers later selected Hunter Cole.
(AP Photo/Ben Margot)
