Reflection on Rangers Trading for Alex Rios

Given Chicago's initial asking price, which was somewhere high in outer space between Neptune and Pluto, trading for Alex Rios seemed like a stretch a few days ago for the Texas Rangers. Parting with any package headlined by Jurickson Profar, Leonys Martin or Martin Perez wasn't going to happen. So the Rangers stood pat at the July 31 trade deadline in their pursuit of a bat to replace the recently suspended Nelson Cruz.

It's a good thing that's all Texas did.

On Friday, the Rangers acquired Rios, who will be locked up through 2014, for Leury Garcia, a light-hitting prospect who has no real future with the Rangers, given their infield depth across the major and minor league systems. The White Sox also kicked in $1 million to help cover Rios' salary for the rest of this season.

It was a pure salary dump by Chicago, which is in rebuilding mode and eager to be free of the $13 million owed to Rios next season. Another feather in the cap of Texas GM Jon Daniels.

Despite their sudden awakening from a hitting depression that lasted for weeks, the Rangers could use another bat with Cruz sidelined. In his age 32 season, Rios is hitting .277 with 12 homers, 55 RBIs and 26 stolen bases this year. He's one of those light five-tool players; can do everything on the baseball field, but doesn't do one single thing at a superstar level. He's solid across the board. He'll be a defensive upgrade over Cruz in right field, which is nice.

Overall, there's not much not to like here. Texas can afford Rios next year, and who knows what happens with Cruz (free agent) after this season? This trade helps us this year and protects against Cruz bolting for more money in 2014.

How awesome is JD? When the asinine rumors came out that the White Sox wanted a package headlined by Profar, Leonys or Perez for Rios, I knew it would never happen. Not with JD making the personnel decisions. It's comforting to know the GM of your favorite team is smart with respect to making deals (the majority of the time anyway). Point is, I didn't believe those rumors for a second because of the faith I have in JD. Not a whole ton of fan bases can say that.

How about this for the primary batting order heading forward?

1. Leonys Martin, CF
2. Elvis Andrus, SS
3. Ian Kinsler, 2B
4. Adrian Beltre, 3B
5. A.J. Pierzynski, C
6. Alex Rios, RF
7. Mitch Moreland, 1B
8. David Murphy, LF
9. Jurickson Profar, DH

Starting rotation: Yu Darvish, Derek Holland, Matt Garza, Alexi Ogando, Martin Perez.

Works for me. Now let's win the West.