In a somewhat surprising move, the Rangers will send the 12th overall pick to Pittsburgh to complete the JT Miller trade, per Larry Brooks. The decision wasn’t needed until tomorrow evening, so making the decision now means potential trades and move up scenarios have been exhausted, and Chris Drury sees a path forward by leveraging the 2026 pick.
To me, this could mean a few things:
- The Rangers may look to take next year as a transition year, perhaps being worse.
- The Rangers are indeed planning some kind of offer sheet this summer.
- The Rangers didn’t see anyone at #12 they wanted to target.
- There is something else brewing
Given K’Andre Miller is still with the Rangers, perhaps there’s a path back into the first round by trading Miller. It’s tough to gauge, and evaluating this decision in a vacuum without seeing how the rest of the offseason plays out is a fool’s errand.
