The Trade
I’m not going to pretend to know more about lefty Adam Macko than others who’ve written him up. He has a credible if generic profile: mid-90s four-seamer, sliders all day to lefties, a change/slider mix and occasional curve to righties. His 13% BB+HBP rate is a problem, but he’s throwing strikes a respectable 64% of the time. Not generic at all is his background. Per Baseball America: “Macko grew up in Slovakia and learned to pitch by watching YouTube videos. He moved first to Ireland and then Canada where he entered more formal baseball training.” Macko is an acquisition for the future and perhaps the present but not immediately, as he was optioned to AAA. He won’t be arbitration eligible until after 2029.
Smith was earning $3.225 million in his first arbitration season, and given recent events, Texas appeared to be leaning strongly against a renewal. Prior to Josh Jung’s injury. Smith was spending his evenings in Reno and Albuquerque while Nicky Lopez and Cam Cauley were in Arlington and Atlanta. 2026 has been a mess. Surely he’s a better hitter than this, and hopefully he can regain at least partial form and enjoy more years of worthy utility work.
24-year-old Josh Stephan would have been drafted in 2020 under ordinary conditions. He populated the lower end of various top-30 lists for a while, arguably peaking during his 20 innings with a 2.25 ERA in the 2024 Arizona Fall League including a start in the championship game. An honor, to be sure, but my evaluation of that start took me off the fence and against addition to the 40. “Starting in the Majors next March would be a huge ask, and his overall repertoire doesn’t migrate to a pen role as easily as the other pitchers I’ve mentioned [Santos, Teodo, Bryan Magdaleno].” The front office concurred.
He has good control but lost some strikeouts and became quite homer-prone once reaching AA. His ERA in 101 AAA innings is 5.44, which sounds poor but is roughly league-average, and he’s regained some of those strikeouts. Still, as it stands, I’d be reluctant to tag him with better than an “up-and-down” outlook. I just don’t think he’d have much fun against MLB hitters. Stephan can become a free agent after the season, and absent a sudden step forward, I’d say he had a negligible chance of being added to the Texas 40. He strikes me as the type who needs to be the hot hand when the parent club needs help and lacks viable 40 options.
I have to believe Toronto’s view of Stephan is more favorable than mine, because if not, what’s the point? Stephan doesn’t turn 25 until November, has time to improve his status, and I hope he does, but he could be showing off that improvement in a different organization in 2027 unless the Jays contractually prevent his departure.
The Non-Trade
When I first heard of Jacob deGrom invoking his no-trade clause, my immediate thought was “that doesn’t necessarily mean he quashed a trade.” Later, various reports suggested that deGrom’s refusal might not have killed a done deal, but a deal would have been done if he hadn’t.
To which I say: “oh well.” DeGrom is among a small number of players with a hard-won contractual right that most will never have, and I can’t blame him for exercising it. He stated his belief in winning here. It does say something that he didn’t want to leave for what would certainly be a likelier chance, arguably his last chance, to participate in the postseason. It says many things, not necessarily all positive.
So Now What?
I emailed this to a reader while yesterday was still young: “There’s an argument for standing pat. It’s possible that playing mostly .500 ball but reeling off nine wins in 12 somewhere in there could be enough to get in. It’s such a bland division. That’s an ugly sell as a GM because it’s so passive, though.” I can’t imagine passivity was Texas’s strategy yesterday, but nevertheless the deadline passed with only one deal of modest consequence.
Writing the team off is easy, especially after last night’s face-plant against the remnants of the Giants, but the Rangers are genuinely still in it. I say that not as a message of hope but as observation of fact. Maybe Bradford and Montgomery will help. Maybe a healthy Leiter will pitch at his best. Maybe Seager will put the team on his back. And maybe none of these happen and the Rangers go on a heater anyway. The AL feels very random, and some random team is going to hit their number on the roulette wheel. Could be Texas. (Please do not hire me for inspirational speaking engagements.)
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