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Okay, Ian Kinsler has been traded for Prince Fielder and $30 million. There are lots of opinions already out there on the interwebs about this deal.
Keith Law analyzes the deal, and I think his summary pretty well states how I feel about this deal for Texas:
Even assuming that the Rangers, who have a huge new revenue stream from their local television deal, can take on Fielder's money without impacting their ability to effectively fill out their roster, the risk that Fielder's deal becomes an immovable object before it's over is large, while Kinsler doesn't seem to be headed for anything worse than overpaid bench-guy status. You can live with $12 million for a 1-2 WAR extra player, but if Fielder's 2013 season is an indication of early decline, or if his mortal coil keeps getting tighter about the midsection, the Rangers could be looking at about $20 million a year for a player who isn't worth the roster spot.
Could the Rangers have done something better with the money they're handing to Fielder? I don't think so, although the question is a fair one.
David Schoenfield suggests that Kinsler might actually be better than Fielder, but this represents better resource allocation for Texas. Of course, he then goes on to suggest signing Robinson Cano and trading Jurickson Profar for Oscar Taveras.
Evan Grant offers his thoughts on the deal, suggesting that this increases the possibility that Nelson Cruz returns, and speculates that this could make Jacoby Ellsbury or Shin-Soo Choo more attractive, although having Choo and Fielder both as starters would make the Rangers rather vulnerable to lefties.
Paul Swyden at FanGraphs has some thoughts on the trade.
Dayn Perry thinks this may be a win-win deal for the teams.
Dave Cameron says this trade is too big to do one post on, and analyzes it first from Detroit's perspective, with the analysis from Texas's perspective coming tomorrow.