Rangers, Yankees resume pursuit of Matt Olson trade

9:09 am: The Yankees deemed the price the athletics team was asking before closing was too high, Tweets Andy Martino of SNY, who added that the Yanks have made it clear that they won’t include the best leads Anthony Volpi in a potential deal.

7:45 am: The closure is over, and in the coming days, the dam will break amid a historic influx of transactions. Athletics first base player Matt Olson Addresses a deep category of business objectives and serves as a focal point for potential athletics sales, which General Motors David Forrest alluded to Back in November when he admitted the team would have to listen to commercials on the majority of their roster this winter. Rangers and Yankees are already known to be among the teams interested in Olson, but their efforts to acquire him can now resume in earnest.

Evan Grant reports from the Dallas Morning News That Rangers planned to reach out to Team A shortly after the lockdown was lifted to revive talks. However, Texans will need to be confident they can sign Olson to a contract extension before striking a deal, per grant. That makes sense, even after spending half a billion dollars to sign Cory Seeger And the Marcus SiminRangers are still far from the competition. Olson is only controlled for two more seasons, and if a playoff round in 2022 isn’t a legitimate possibility, the prospect of only having Olson have one year of serious contention will make the sky-high price tag unpalatable.

For the Yankees, Eric Boland of Newsday Tweets That Olson is their preferred choice for first base promotion. Yank currently has Luke Voigt (same trade filter) and DJ Limaheu As indoor options, Voit is coming off an injury-ridden season and not having the same defensive prowess as Olson. LeMahieu looks for a bounce in the board himself and is best deployed as a second baseman or third baseman, as his gauntlet holds the most value. as we are Explore it while closedThere are plenty of options for the Yankees, who have been rumored to have varying degrees of interest in the free agent Freddy Freeman And the Anthony Rizzo.

Regarding the Rangers, it shouldn’t be assumed that they would be at Freeman or Rizzo if they missed Olson. Grant distinguishes Olson and the left-handed Clayton Kershaw As something of a niche goal for the Rangers, suggesting that if they don’t manage to get one or both players, there could only be an additional $10-15 million in total spending for Texas this winter. In the absence of a deal with Olson, it is likely that the Rangers first base will return to base Nathaniel Lowewho had a steady year at the board in 2021 (.264/.357/.415, 18 Homers).

Texas and New York will be just two of a wide variety of teams interested in keeping Olson out of Oakland. The Braves are known to have some interest, too, but they’d probably just take a hit to get Olson if they knew for sure that Freeman is headed elsewhere. Freeman, 2020 NL MVP, has been linked to the Dodgers, Yankees, Blue Jays and even The Rays, who made him an offer before closing. The two star base markets are closely related, and with Freeman expected to act quickly in making a decision after the close, Olson’s market may gain some clarity soon.

While A’s will listen to more than just Olson – Matt ChapmanAnd the Frankie MontasAnd the Shawn MindAnd the Chris BassettAnd the Ramon Lauriano And the Le Trevino They can also be marketed – there’s no denying that Olson is the leader in their options and, arguably, the entire trade-in market. The 2021 All-Star and Gold Glover twice in his career made 39 home runs last year while recording the best overall production in a major league period. Olson hit .271 / .371 / .540 and maintained a whopping 13.1% gait rate while simultaneously lowering the hit rate that was a problem from 31.4% in 2020 all the way to 16.8%. he is Forecast by MLBTR contributor Matt Schwartz to earn $12 million next season.