The Rangers sign an All-Star starting pitcher.
Two days before last summer’s trade deadline, The Athletic’s Jim Bowden, a former MLB GM, ranked the best starting pitchers believed to be available in trade. Bowden slotted Jordan Montgomery ninth — one spot behind Michael Lorenzen.
It wasn’t a consensus opinion. And it certainly wasn’t the opinion of the Rangers, or the rest of the league. Hours after Bowden’s story dropped, Texas sent frontline prospects Thomas Saggese and Tekoah Roby to the Cardinals for Montgomery (and swapped middle relievers John King and Chris Stratton in the process). Two days later, all the Tigers could manage to fetch for Lorenzen, their lone All-Star representative weeks earlier, was 20-year-old Taiwanese second baseman Hao-Yu Lee; you’ll have to scroll down any current list of the Tigers’ top prospects to find Lee’s name.
The Rangers were, of course, very much right to pay more for Montgomery last summer than it would have taken to get Lorenzen. Late last night, they chose not to do it a second time.
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