Young has requested a trade, Rangers say

Young is a quality human being and baseball player who has given his all to the Texas Rangers. The Texas Rangers have treated him badly and he has still performed exceptionally. I hope he goes to a team that will appreciate him for the player and person he is. Shame on the Texas Rnagers!!!!

Everyone who is saying that the Rangers have treated Young badly, you need to tap the breaks and look and the facts. Fact: Rangers had a better defensive player for 2B, so instead of trading Young, they asked him to move to SS in order to keep him. Young whined about it, but then agreed. Fact: another MUCH better defensive SS came along, and the Rangers asked him to play 3B in order to keep him. Young really whined this time, but eventually moved. Fact: Young is now a defensive liability at 3B, and is now officially pouting about being asked to move to DH. Fact: Young has always said publicly that he wants to stay in Texas and do what is best for the team, but every time the TEAM asks him to do something that is clearly best for the team, he whines and pout, and now that it is clear that he will get limitted playing time defensively, he is thinking of himself first and wants out. By the way, as a show of loyalty to Young, the Rangers VASTLY overpaid him as a way of saying thank you for being a good guy. I like Young, and I would rather he stay, but only if he accepts the reality that his best defensive years are behind him. If Young wants to look out for himself first, I have no problem with that either, just quit saying that Young wants to put the Rangers first, because his actions say otherwise. If Young leaves, I don’t think the Rangers did anything to ‘mistreat’ him, and I don’t blame Young for wanting to play as much as he can. There comes a time when the needs of the team and the needs of the player no longer mesh together. “That just the way baseball go”. . .sometimes.

Michael Young has been, and continues to be the definition of a class act, and a team player. He would love to stay with Texas, but the management has made it clear that their intention would be to sit him at DH for most of the season. Michael has continually moved around and changed positions to accommodate the needs of his team. Is he thinking of himself now, Absolutely! He has every right to do so. Any team he goes to will benefit from him. Michael is respected throughout the league, and I guarantee he’ll be worth whatever price someone is willing to pay for him.
Myself, I will follow whatever club Michael goes to. I emain a Rangers fan, but am sorry to see this turn of events.

AS A LONG TIME FAN OF THE RANGERS. I FEEL THAT SENDING MICHAEL YOUNG OUT THROUGH A TRADE IS STUPID. WHAT THE RANGERS NEED TO DO IS TRADE OFF TAYLOR TEAGARDEN. KEEP MICHAEL HE IS THE TEAM LEADER. EVERYONE LOOKS UP TO HIM, THEY LIKE HIS ADVICE AND SUGGESTIONS. PUT MICHAEL AT FISRT BASE. THE RANGERS NEED HIS GLOVE AND BAT. TO TRADE YOUNG WILL BE THE RANGERS HUGE MISTAKE. IF IT HAPPENS, THE RANGERS WILL LOSE A LONG TIME FAN, BECAUSE OF THIER STUPIDITY.

@youngfan09. . . .it is very clear that you are a Young fan and are not capable of looking at the situation objectively. I have followed Ranger baseball extremely closely for more years than most. You can’t just look at the lame superficial number of error to determine the overall defensive ability. Young has never had exceptional range so his total chances are not going to be as high as those who have exceptional range. I’ll admit that Kinsler drives me nuts at times by making the great play and then booting a simple one, but Kinsler CLEARLY had more upside than Young, and Kinsler was ready to move up from AAA. Yes we didn’t have ****, but again, if Young was the better option at 2B, the Rangers would have left him there. As far as fact number 2 goes, all your doing is discrediting yourself if you are going to try to make the case that Young is a better defensive SS than Andrus. Elvis had put him time in minor and he was ready to make the adjustment to the majors. Ask ANY GM which player they would rather have at SS. Elvis is better right now that Young ever was defensively and Elvis is still getting better. As far as the gold glove thing, you are again discrediting yourself if you are trying to say that that award is actually given out to the best defensive player at that position. That is what is SUPPOSE to happen, but we all know it goes to the popular/offensive player. How else did Raffy win the gold glove for 1B for a year that he only played 16 games at 1B?!?!? As far as being a great hitter, thats why they want him to be the DH. Are you not following the story? That what DH stands for. . .designated HITTER. The feel he has something left at the plate, which he probably does. But the simply put he cost us at least one game in the playoffs with his freakin’ ole crap at 3B. EVERYONE who has ever played or watched baseball knows you have to move your feet and get in front of the ball. I like Young as well, but reality sucks sometimes, and based on last year, Young is only helpful defensively on a limited basis.

I guess some don’t consider Young’s subpar defense a weakness. Beltre represents a clear upgrade or the move wouldn’t have been made. Anyone who has watched Michael at third the past couple of seasons and thinks his range is acceptable is fooling themselves. Ian has much better range at second, same for Beltre at third and Elvis is light years ahead of him at shortstop. Michael is a good hitter and a class act, but that’s not enough to ignore his obvious flaws on defense. I hope he reconsiders this trade request, like he did the first time 2 years ago when he moved from SS, (a move that made the team much better) because to trade him will be a terrible PR move and they’re not going to get a good player in return unless they eat 30% or more the $48 million he’s owed over the next 3 seasons.

Get a grip folks! Young is about to become a 5 & 10 year guy this year, which means that he will have veto rights on any trade that the Rangers would want to make involving him after that happens. The Rangers overpaid for Young when they signed him for 5 years/ 80 Million dollars. What i don’t like is that the Rangers always eat the salary. How much are they going to eat per year on this one 8, 10 million? If they are going to do that then just keep him. We always deal from a position of weakness, DEAL FROM STRENGTH and get VALUE for him. Don’t eat the salary and get nothing in return. If that happens then this stinks to high heaven as a salary dump (HICKS Favorite pasttime) Young is no different than any other favorite player (face of the franchise) that we have had. He is not immune to what happened to these players, Harrah, Sundberg, Bell, Perry, all traded! Pudge was allowed to walk as free agent. I personally would like to see us move Kinsler and let Young play second base. What is Kinsler making? Kinsler doesn’t play defense well enough for me and is injury prone.

The Rangers mistreated him to the tune of $16 million a year. The rest of us could be so lucky to be treated that poorly. I love Michael Young too, and he has given so much to this franchise, but he’s been handsomely paid for it. I understand how feelings can get hurt when your boss asks you to sacrifice, but a team leader would do that and Young needs to realize defensively Beltre is an upgrade, just as Andrus was at short. Young DH-ing helps the team, it’s as simple as that. If he doesn’t want to help this team win then he should be traded, as long as the Rangers get an $ 8-10 million player in return. I don’t think the Rangers should absorb half his salary and not get a plus player in return. I just don’t like Michael taking this so personally. This is a contending club and Jon Daniels’ job is to keep it that way and shoring up the defense at third was something that needed to be done. Mikes bat is his strong suit and that bat will play a prominent run in the success of the team if he’d let it. Not to mention taking a “reduced” role as DH might extend his career several years beyond his contract which runs out when he turns 37.

Yet another utter failure in logic form ol’ bm. Kinsler is better defensively than Young. It’s just that simple. Young’s range at second was adequate years ago when he still played there. It’s not anymore. Move a player with bad range to the middle of the diamond would only make his biggest weakness more of an issue. Factor in that Ian is going to make less than half what Michael is over the next 3 seasons and I’m not sure how anybody in their right mind would say that Michael is more valuable than Ian. The fact that the Rangers will have to eat so much of Young’s contact to get a usable player in return should be a clear indication of his production realative to his pay.

Hefe I dont get it. Kinsler makes difficult plays look easy easy plays look hard is hurt two months of every season and has a .280 career BA. He also loves to pop up and pout about it or stike out. I guess i just dont see what you do.

well put Jordan. I would rather have him on the team, but if Young wants to play in the field, that is his choice. But, just because he is declining in ability, and the Rangers have better options at the infield positions, doesn’t mean that Young is being mistreated. He was paid WELL for his efforts. If he leaves, I’ll miss him and wish him well. I might do the same if I were in his shoes. Once your done playing, you never get it back. If Young wants to play defense as long as posible, more power to him. But just because Young is a great guy, doesn’t give him the right to hold the team back when the Rangers have better defensive options.

@youngfan: Yes his leadership will be missed overall, but how good of a role model will he be if he thinks that team is mistreating him and he doesn’t deserve being the DH? Maybe devide the locker room? Kinsler has been somewhat of a disappointment at times, but he still is young enough to have upside, and he is still better defensively than Young, and will provide more power than Young. Young’s upside is all gone. And let us not forget how much grumbling and complaining and previous trade demands, (although short lived), have already come from Young in the past position changes. Leaders usually come from your best players, and when those players are no longer the best players, the leadership role gets past on to the new best players. Young is no longer the Ranger’s best player. . .not even close. Nolan knows a thing or two about leadership. I have a feeling he is keeping a close eye on the leadership situation.

It is hard for any Rangers fan to look at this situation objectively. Young is a great guy and has been the face of this franchise for the past 10 years. Unfortunately, the guy is 34. he might have 3 or 4 years left, if he is lucky. His defensive powerhouse days are behind him, and his batting numbers are slowly declining. It would not be good business if Daniels and the ownership did not seek younger/stronger upgrades for this team. Young also will acquire trade veto powers in May, something that only weakens any chance this team can get an upgrade in a trade for Young.

I wish him all the best, but if he isn’t happy with a DH role and wants to leave, we need to do our best to find a young guy who’s a decent bat before May roles around.

WOW, First to correct like everyone on here. Young did not move to SS in order for Kinsler to take his place…He moved because we traded A-Rod away and got Alfonso Soriano and he refused to play Short Stop… OH YEAH Forgot about that huh… Then Kinsler came along after the fact….Kinsler is my favorite, not always the best but. Elvis is the bomb at SS, can’t deny that, I agree it sucked to move a Gold Glove winner (deserving or not) to a new postion, but it did make the team better. Adrian Beltre makes the team better, on both sides of the ball. Losing Young is not the answer, but if he has asked for a trade again, well that is his right, I think it will kill the morale of the team, but so will him staying if he truly does not want to DH. I understand the frustration, but he signed a contract to play with the Rangers for X number of years, I am pretty sure it does not say that you will be playing a certain position. I respect Young to the highest, I hope him the best wherever he may be at, but he is still being paid to PLAY a game that happens to be his JOB, and as most of us know all to well, sometimes you don’t always get the JOB you want, but be thankful you still have that pay check… Ask Jose or Barry about that….