One Trade Could Decide the AL West. Texas Needs to Make It.

The Texas Rangers are in first place. Barely. And nobody in the American League West looks ready to run away with anything.

Half a game up on the Seattle Mariners, the Rangers have spent all season in what amounts to a pillow fight for division supremacy. The pitching has been inconsistent. The lineup has holes. Corey Seager hit the injured list. Josh Smith got sent down. And still, here they are, sitting on top of a division that nobody seems to want to win.

That’s why the trade deadline matters so much for Texas. They need to add, and they need to add smart.

Luis Arraez Makes Too Much Sense

The Rangers have already reshuffled their infield multiple times this year. Ezequiel Duran has been a revelation at shortstop. Nicky Lopez has held down second base. But the lineup could use another reliable bat, and Luis Arraez fits the profile.

Arraez is with the San Francisco Giants now. He’s still hitting for average, still getting on base, and he’s become a better defender at second base than people give him credit for. The Giants are looking to rebuild their rotation, and Texas has a surplus of young right-handed pitchers in the pipeline. Five of their top seven prospects are right-handed arms. Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter are already in the bigs. They can afford to deal one.

There’s also a sentimental angle. Ron Washington is the Giants’ infield coach now. He managed the Rangers to back-to-back World Series appearances in 2010 and 2011. The organization still believes in his teaching. That connection might make talks easier.

The American League Is Wide Open

Here’s the thing. The AL is so weak this year that one good bat could push the Rangers into real playoff contention. The Yankees and Rays look like the class of the league right now, but after that? It’s anybody’s guess.

Texas isn’t the only team shopping. The Yankees need a catcher badly — Austin Wells has struggled all season — and they’ll be competing with the Rangers for any available backstop. The two best options on the market are probably Hunter Goodman of the Rockies and Ryan Jeffers of the Twins. Goodman is 26 and hitting well. Jeffers is 29 and might cost less because Minnesota has young catchers waiting. Either one would be an upgrade over what Texas is running out there now.

But Arraez should be the priority. He doesn’t hit home runs, but he makes pitchers work. He gets on base. In a division where every win matters, that could be the difference between October and an early vacation.

The Rangers can’t afford to wait. The deadline is August 3. Sellers are scarce because the wild card race is deep. Every team in the AL is saying the same thing: ‘If we can just get in…’ Texas is saying it too. The difference is, they actually have a shot.