The Rangers have been one of the most beat up teams in recent memory. Top prospect Jurickson Profar, while major league ready a couple of years ago, has lost much of the last two seasons to injury. Prince Fielder lost most of last season to a neck injury. This season, they lost ace Yu Darvish to the dreaded Tommy John surgery. It’s been a rough going for fans of the team. But they never gave up and right now they’re just 2.5 games back in the AL Wild Card race and things are starting to look up.
In the offseason, they acquired Yovani Gallardo who has been pretty excellent for them. That’s helped cushion the blow of losing Darvish. Then at the deadline, they made the blockbuster trade that brought in front line starter Cole Hamels. Now they’ve made a smaller deal that could provide a lot of hidden value. I’m talking about the recent acquisition of Mike Napoli in exchange for a player to be named later.
Source: Napoli dealt to Rangers
— Rob Bradford (@bradfo) August 7, 2015
Napoli & cash considerations for a PTNBL or cash. Deal is official. NAPOLI is a Ranger.
— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) August 8, 2015
On the surface it might not seem to make a lot of sense. Prince Fielder is healthy and crushing the ball again (.327/.394/.499, 140 wRC+). Mitch Moreland is having a career year too boot (.287/.340/.505, 128 wRC+). On the other side of the spectrum is Mike Napoli (.207/.307/.386, 89 wRC+).
So why did the Rangers make this move? Take a look at their splits vs LHP this year:
| Player | AVG | OBP | SLG | wRC+ |
| Mike Napoli | .229 | .345 | .500 | 128 |
| Prince Fielder | .267 | .339 | .447 | 110 |
| Mitch Moreland | .255 | .311 | .362 | 82 |
As you can see Prince Fielder is holding his own against same side pitching but Mitch Moreland is not. Mike Napoli provides an excellent compliment to either player to spell them against left-handed pitching. Napoli has the worst batting average of the trio but he more than makes up for it with his slugging percentage and, more importantly, with his insane 15.0 BB%.
Having Napoli on the team will also allow the team to rest their two slugging first baseman/designated hitters. That’s something that is hard to quantify. But we’ve all seen players in the postseason that look gassed. Whether that’s an accurate assumption or not, having an extra person you can plug in to give a guy a day off can only help.
Moves like this won’t be talked about much. If the Rangers do make it into the playoffs, people will almost certain credit the Gallardo acquisition in the offseason and the Hamels trade. And rightfully so. But little moves like this can help solidify a roster. That’s something that shouldn’t go unnoticed. This is a smart pick-up for a team that’s on a critical part of the win-curve where even one win could mean the difference between going home at the end of the season or going to a division series.
Statistics courtesy of FanGraphs
