MLB: Filling The Wrong Hole With Andres Galarraga

As hard as it might be to believe in certain cases, every general manager goes into the off-season with a plan. In one Pinstriped case, that plan is designed to keep the team on top: for everyone else, this course of action is designed to hasten the team’s return to the Promised Land – though sometimes a Syd Thrift-style neutron bomb must be detonated first. Having said that, there are three main sub-groups into which all plans fall:

1. The “I need to get this team out of the second division before the owner pulls the flush handle on my chair and brings in some assistant of Billy Beane’s” plan

2. The “I need to figure out some way to get this team past the first round of the playoffs before the owner pulls the flush handle on my chair etc. etc. etc.” plan

3. The “I need to turn this team from a pretender to a contender before the owner etc. etc. etc.” plan

It’s the third situation that is the trickiest for a GM to deal with successfully. Normally, such a team has a solid player core that is undermined by several big-time holes, one of which is virtually impossible to fill unless you act fast and are prepared to spend oodles of the moolah the owner earned charging 35% for payday loans or whatever it was he did to make his pile. The GM inevitably gets the money, but the conversation that ensues always carries the same message: you’d better be darned sure that I see some post-season games out the window of my luxury box or else… The “or else” is never mentioned nor does it have to be: the unconscious twitch of the hand nearest that chromium flush handle tells the GM everything he needs to know.

The GM Handbook is clear on the procedure at this point: sign any scarce “skill position” players you need first, then fill the other spots at your leisure because there’s always an OK left fielder or decent #5 starter waiting for a call around February 15. Get the cart before the horse and you risk blowing a ton of money on replaceable talents while leaving an unfillable gap on the roster that will only become more glaringly obvious with time. Screw it up badly enough and your team will receive the unenviable designation of “first loser” – the team that everybody compliments for its heart and spunk in the face of insurmountable odds before it goes down to the eventual division winner.

All of which makes the Friday acquisition of Andres Galarraga by Texas Rangers’ GM Doug Melvin a very odd move indeed.

On one level the deal makes perfect sense. After trading Juan Gonzalez, losing Todd Ziele, Mark McLemore, and Tom Goodwin to free agency and Ivan Rodriguez, Rusty Greer, and Ruben Mateo to injuries, the 2000 Rangers dropped to ninth in runs scored in the American League. While Johnny Oates found a couple of gem or near-gem quality younger players in Mateo and Gabe Kapler, the Rangers were weak offensively on the left side of the infield (at second as well until last month’s trade for Randy Velarde) and got virtually nothing out of their DH spot when Rafael Palmeiro took the field.

Given the above, Melvin’s line of reasoning is obvious:

1. Get everybody healthy

2. Add Galarraga’s proven power (28 homers, 100 RBI last season in Atlanta) AND

3. Come up with one other big time hitter (Alex Rodriguez? Juan Gonzalez?)

…and you should have plenty of firepower to unseat the A’s and Mariners even if the Curse of Steve Buechele continues to hover over third base at The Ballpark in Arlington.

Well, Melvin could be right and I suppose that the Rangers could have enough offense to make it over the top if the Moon is in the Seventh House and Jupiter aligns with Mars, but consider that:

- The last I checked you had to pitch the ball to the opposing team every other half inning - and in case Melvin didn’t know it, the Rangers were dead last in the AL ERA derby last season. Sure, Rick Helling and Kenny Rogers are solid starters, and the guys behind them (Darren Oliver, Justin Thompson, and Francisco Cordero or Doug Davis or Matt Perisho or whoever else they decide to try out of their minor leagues) are “promising”. However, let’s get real: Helling’s a #3 starter on a good staff, Rogers’ health is always a catch as catch can affair, and it isn’t as if a lot those guys at the back end of the rotation weren’t “promising” last year, and the year before…

In short, what the Rangers REALLY needed was a big time starter to anchor their rotation – you know, someone like that Mike Hampton guy who signed with the Rockies, or that Mussina feller who’s with those bad old pinstriped monsters from the East. Heck, even a Denny Neagle-type pitcher would have done wonders, but he’s now lost to the Land of Sky Blue Waters too.

The sad fact is that even if the Rangers recognized today that they needed front line pitching help there would be very little that they could do to obtain it. Darren Dreifort is virtually the only high-ceiling starter left on the market, and the Dodgers appear resigned to the idea of signing over the residuals from “The Simpsons” to keep him on board…

Oh, and John Wetteland isn’t coming back either, is he?

- Galarraga’s 2000 power numbers received a strong boost from a hot April. If you take his numbers for the other five months of the season you come up with 18 homers and 76 RBI in 412 at bats, which sounds like a pretty active year for a guy who will turn 40 two months into the season.

Now let me ask you this: exactly how hard do you think it would be to come up with someone out of the free agent pool who could give you 18 homers and 76 RBI as a DH for something under $6.7 million? Let’s see who’s out there – Jose Canseco, Harold Baines, Henry Rodriguez, Derek Bell, Mike Stanley; heck, you could probably sign a couple of those guys for what The Big Cat is making and have enough change left over to send Royce Clayton and Chad Curtis to military school.

I wish Doug Melvin and the Rangers well and heck, if everybody stays healthy and plays like it’s 1999 and they catch a break here and there… well, the 1969 Mets were certainly longer shots coming into the season. It’s just that you could have say the same thing for several other AL teams that are short a reliable DH too…

… And how much do you want to bet that they figure out a way to solve that problem for something less than $6.7 million?