{"id":112680,"date":"2026-01-22T17:41:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T22:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=112680"},"modified":"2026-01-22T17:41:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T22:41:36","slug":"the-texas-rangers-acquire-mackenzie-gore-in-blockbuster-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/01\/22\/the-texas-rangers-acquire-mackenzie-gore-in-blockbuster-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"The Texas Rangers Acquire Mackenzie Gore in Blockbuster Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Texas Rangers have made a blockbuster trade to acquire Mackenzie Gore<\/a> from the Washington Nationals.<\/p>\n

The Return Package<\/h2>\n

The Rangers paid a steep price to get Gore. Giving up several high prospects, including N0.2 prospect Gavin Fien<\/a>, No.6 prospect Alejandro Rosario<\/a>, No.12 Devin Fitz-Gerald<\/a>, No.16 Yeremy Cabrera<\/a>, and No.18 Abimelec Ortiz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It hurts to lose Fien, as the Rangers selected him in the first round last year. Additionally, Fitz-Gerald has gotten off to a hot start in his professional career.<\/p>\n

Rosario has flashed brilliance in the minor leagues, but Tommy John surgery sidelined him for 2025. The Nationals likely won\u2019t see him pitch again until 2027<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cabrera is a bit of an unknown. He is a 20-year-old in Single A who hit .256 with eight home runs and 52 RBIs. However, he did steal 43 bases last year, and his speed is his highest graded tool according to MLB.com.<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite being the lowest-rated prospect in the deal, Ortiz is a name that most Rangers fans know. He is known for his power, which is his highest tool at 55. He has a chance to break into the Major Leagues for the Nationals this year.<\/p>\n

Mackenzie Gore<\/h2>\n

Gore earned an All-Star nod last season, posting a 4.17 ERA with 185 strikeouts against 64 walks and three WAR in 159.2 innings.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Those numbers don’t jump off the page, but they don’t tell the whole story. He was good in the first half with a 3.22 ERA. But struggled in the second half, posting a 5.68 ERA.<\/p>\n

The Rangers will need to get him back to his first-half self, and he will not need to carry the rotation in Texas. He joins a talented rotation led by Nathan Eovaldi<\/a> and Jacob deGrom<\/a>. Former Vanderbilt teammates Jack Leiter<\/a> and Kumar Rocker<\/a> will likely be the other guys in the back end of the rotation.<\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/h2>\n

This move gives the Rangers’ rotation a big boost and makes the unit one of the most talented in the American League. Eovaldi and deGrom are front-end pitchers, Leiter enjoyed a breakout last year, and Rocker is very talented. If they can live up to their potential and Gore can pitch like his first-half self, then they will be dangerous.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Texas Rangers have made a blockbuster trade to acquire Mackenzie Gore from the Washington Nationals. The Return Package The Rangers paid a steep price to get Gore. Giving up several high prospects, including N0.2 prospect Gavin Fien, No.6 prospect Alejandro Rosario, No.12 Devin Fitz-Gerald, No.16 Yeremy Cabrera, and No.18 Abimelec Ortiz. It hurts to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5610,"featured_media":112690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1071,35],"tags":[29240,3785,29238,29237,6273,1327,2119,29239],"class_list":["post-112680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rangers","category-mlb","category-news","tag-abimelec-ortiz","tag-alejandro-rosario","tag-devin-fitz-gerald","tag-gavin-fien","tag-jacob-degrom","tag-mackenzie-gore","tag-nathan-eovaldi","tag-yeremy-cabrera"],"modified_by":"Augustus Oswald, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112680"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112694,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112680\/revisions\/112694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}