The Texas Rangers have traded catcher Jonathan Lucroy and relief pitcher Jeremy Jeffress ahead of the trade deadline.
It was announced that Texas had dealt the two players along with the marquee trade of Yu Darvish to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Jonathan Lucroy is headed to the Colorado Rockies and Jeremy Jeffress is headed back to the Milwaukee Brewers.
In exchange, the Texas Rangers are looking to "restock" the farm system. In trading Lucroy, Jeffress, and Darvish, the Rangers acquired a slew of minor league talent. According to MLB.com, the Rangers acquired Willie Calhoun, pitcher A.J. Alexy and infielder Brendon Davis from the Dodgers for Darvish, picher Tayler Scott from Milwaukee for Jeffress and a player to be named for Lucroy.
The Rangers organizations' upper management have praised the deal as a new kickstart for the team's 2018 season.
"At the upper levels, we certainly have some players, but not where we want to be and where we will be very quickly," Rangers general manager Jon Daniels told MLB, "And when you have the kind of people and systems that our development and scouting systems have, I'm pretty confident that that will look very different, very quickly."
Right-handed pitchers Clayton Blackburn and Nick Martinez have been called up to assume pitching duties in the thin 2017 Rangers bullpen, while Robinson Chirinos is expected to see increased playing time in Lucroy's absence.
