Rosenthal: Rangers should sign everyone

Ken Rosenthal has a column up at Fox Sports talking about the Rangers' offseason plans, and oddly, he seems to think that the team that has been in the World Series in back to back years, and was one strike away from winning it all in 2011, needs a pretty big overhaul.

In particular, Rosenthal is advocating letting C.J. Wilson walk and replacing him with Mark Buehrle, who would give the rotation "grit"; signing Prince Fielder to a huge deal; and signing a free agent closer and moving Neftali Feliz into the rotation.

On the first part, I don't see how replacing C.J. with Buehrle is an upgrade.  Buehrle is older than C.J., has more miles on him, and isn't as good at this point, although he would be cheaper.  That said, Rosenthal is supposedly plugged in with Jon Daniels and the Rangers' front office, and I have to wonder if his seeming dismissal of C.J. returning isn't a reflection of the front office's stance right now, particularly given that the rumblings in the local media seem to suggest that bringing Wilson back isn't much of a priority.

On Prince Fielder...he'd be a great addition to the middle of the lineup.  He's an impact bat.  But he's also going to be commanding lots of money for seven or eight years, and I'm not sure you want to be committed to him that long for the annual salary he's going to command.  I'd be open to signing Prince.  I'm not saying I'd hate it if the Rangers gave him, say, eight years, $160 million...but that would be a scary contract.

Finally, on free agent closers...no.  Just no.  First of all, it is worth noting that if you sign Mark Buehrle and move Feliz to the rotation, you've got six starters, before factoring in long man/potential #5 starter Scott Feldman.  That opens up the possibility of Alexi Ogando moving back to the bullpen, where I think he may be better suited long-term.

Secondly, even if you have Ogando and Feliz both in the rotation, you've got Mike Adams in the bullpen.  He's a better reliever than the closers on two-thirds of the major league teams right now.  And the Ranger farm system is loaded with live arms that you would expect could be able to contribute to a major league bullpen.

When you've got the options the Rangers have, why spend $10 million plus per year for multiple years signing a Jonathan Papelbon or a Heath Bell?  What's the point?  If you want to spend money for the sake of spending money, spend money locking up someone like Elvis Andrus long-term, not on a closer.