Rangers Sim Offseason in review

The past few years, when the offseason was just kicking off, we at SBN have done a “Sim Offseason.” I’ve participated as the Rangers g.m. — last year, my goal was to recreate the 2010-11 Texas Rangers, which I largely did, bringing back Ian Kinsler, Mike Napoli, and Nelson Cruz, among others.

You can see this year’s wrap-up and summary here for everyone, including the moves I made as the Sim Ranger g.m.

My moves:

Exercised the options on Derek Holland and Jonathan Lucroy

Pretty self-explanatory.

Traded Rougned Odor and Alex Claudio to the Brewers for Junior Guerra, Luis Ortiz, Marcos Diplan, Monte Harrison and Brett Phillips

This is the one I expect howling over. My view is that I don’t think there’s a big drop-off in the expected performance between Jurickson Profar and Rougned Odor, and given how much more trade value Odor has, I figured I’d shop him for pitching. Guerra is someone I talked about the Rangers possibly having interest in at the trade deadline — he’s older, but still not arbitration-eligible and someone I think can slot in as a solid MORP. It also allowed me to get a couple of former Rangers pitching prospects back that I liked, and also add a couple of position prospects to help re-stock the cupboard after the trade deadline moves last year.

Traded Ronald Guzman, Jairo Beras and Mike Matuella to the Pirates for Josh Bell and Mitch Keller

I’m not a big believer in Guzman or Beras being impact players, and Matuella is a huge question mark because of his injury. I was willing to give them up to get a good young hitter who is under team control for a long time, and who I can immediately slot into the lineup at DH, 1B or the outfield.

Traded Lucas Harrell to the Orioles for Tanner Scott

Just getting a prospect for a guy who has no place here.

Signed Ian Desmond to a four year $72 million deal with a $18 million club option and $4 mill buyout

I probably — no, definitely -- overpaid here. I needed a center fielder, and ended up splurging on Desmond. I’m looking at this now and thinking, damn, I’m going to regret this deal in a year or two.

Signed Carlos Beltran to a 1 year, $18 million deal

Self-explanatory. I thought I had a deal to move Shin-Soo Choo, which would have opened up DH or RF for Beltran. As it is, I’m not real confident that Choo will stay healthy, but if he does, Beltran and Choo can share the RF/DH role, Mazara can move to 1B, and Bell can be in LF. Not a good defensive alignment in the outfield, but I can live with it.

Signed Josh Hamilton to a minor league deal

Self-explanatory.

So there you go. Take your shots at me.