Rangers open trade deadline seal by sending Mike Minor to the A’s

After the San Diego Padres slew together a string of trades, two AL West partners made a deal early Monday afternoon. According to Jeff Passan and confirmed by other sources, the Rangers sent a left-handed starter to the Oakland Athletics for two players to be named later.

#Rangers Mike Minor goes to Oakland for two PTBNL. https://t.co/gY8TtgcqpQ

— Alex Plinck🏳️‍🌈 (@aplinckTX) August 31, 2020

I want to make one thing clear to you, fine folks. When a deal includes a “player to be named later,” it doesn’t automatically diminish the return quality. In 2020, the term means that the players were not on the sixty-man player pool each team was required to have in this odd 2020 season. The real value of the trade, from the Rangers, will be revealed later on. Nevertheless, Minor’s contract expires at the end of the season. Therefore, I didn’t expect much of a return for Minor anyway. There’s a small possibility the Rangers may get a little extra for Minor’s shutout outing Friday against the Dodgers. Still, it was inevitable the Rangers dealing Mike Minor was going to happen.

**Update** The Athletic’s Levi Weaver shared the following around 12:45 on Monday afternoon.

Source tells me that the PTBNLs for Mike Minor are:

OF Marcus Smith (third-round pick, 2019) https://t.co/STrVhxOtjr

-and-

3B Dustin Harris (11th-round pick, 2019) https://t.co/G9g0JZLiSf

— Levi Weaver (@ThreeTwoEephus) August 31, 2020

Smith is a 5’11, 190 bound outfielder who is about to turn 20 on September 11th next month. Levi also reported that both players are in the top twenty of Oakland’s prospects, according to Keith Law’s rankings from earlier this year.

A’s, eighth in AL in rotation ERA, get help with Minor, who struggled early in the season but shut out the Dodgers for six innings in his most recent start.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) August 31, 2020

The Minor deal is a trigger that needed to happen for Texas. Whispers of several teams show interest in Lance Lynn, including the Twins, White Sox, Yankees, Braves, etc. Other players include Joey Gallo, Joely Rodriguez, Rafael Montero, Shin-Soo Choo, and Todd Frazier. The club also is looking to do a contract exchange with Rougned Odor. Buckle up Jon Daniels, it’s going to be a wild ride.

Two prospects heading to Rangers… https://t.co/72pyVuAY4L

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) August 31, 2020