Every year you see the same thing during the trade deadline in baseball. A team does not do so well and decides to trade away their star player for a bunch of prospects.
This year, the Rays and Rangers both traded away their respective aces and the Orioles dealt away Manny Machado to the Dodgers.
Moves like this always stir the pot with the fanbase who hate to see their beloved player go. As a Texas Rangers fan myself, it definitely sucked to see Cole Hamels get traded away alongside Jake Diekman and Keone Kela.
However, the moves were necessary. On every post by the team though, you will see a number of fans calling for the firing of Rangers General Manager Jon Daniels because we are getting rid of "everyone."
Not only is this simply wrong, but those people simply do not understand baseball. Here are a few reasons why trading away players during the trade deadline can help a team drastically for years to come.
1. A good farm system leads to championships
Fans often like to complain that "These prospects do not win games right now." While this is true, I want to take a look at the past few World Series title winners and the teams that are incredibly good right now.
Last year the Houston Astros, a team that a few years ago were considered to be the laughing stock of the MLB, dominated everyone in route to a World Series title.
While they made a few trades during the championship run, most notably the acquisition of starting pitcher Justin Verlander, they mostly built their team through the draft and their farm system.
Alex Bregman, Jose Altuve, George Springer, Carlos Correa, Dallas Keuchel, I could go on and on about how good this team was and how good they will be for years to come.
A few years before the Astros were Houston Strong, the Kansas City Royals and Chicago Cubs did the same thing. All three of these teams had a history of being sub-par compared to the big money teams like the Yankees and Red Sox, but then beat them by building in-house.
Even now though, the Yankees and Red Sox have started to do the same thing and have developed some incredible talent like Aaron Judge, Mookie Betts and Gary Sanchez.
This shows that the MLB is transitioning into a different league, which leads me to my next point.
2. Teams that were bad are becoming juggernauts
If you needed more evidence to see why building the farm system is the best way to build a good team, look no further than the AL West.
Two teams, the Oakland Athletics and the Seattle Mariners, were never contenders in the division. Now all of a sudden, they both are being competitive with the Astros while the Angels and Rangers are sitting below them.
In fact, the AL West current has three of the top five records in the American League right now. Years of building their farm systems have come to fruition and the former divisional juggernauts are sitting back.
Meanwhile, in the NL East, the Philadelphia Phillies are making quite the resurgence alongside the Atlanta Braves thanks to a plethora of talented young players, and the Milwaukee Brewers are neck and neck with the Cubs.
3. Depth helps deal with injuries
Public Service Announcement to all Texas Rangers fans. Do you remember a couple seasons ago when our entire team spent a combined 2,347 days on the disabled list?
Well, I'm here to tell you that having a good farm system has its benefits even if those players are not starting right away. Texas was devastated that year because they made trades in the years prior because of their deep runs in the playoffs that left their farm system in shambles.
While the trades were good for the short term, once those rentals left the organization was left an empty and sad shell. Both Texas and the Los Angeles Angels did this and they are paying the price for it currently in 2018.
4. A deep farm system allows you to make moves when you need to
If your team has a deep farm system then eventually it will become a winner. When it does, you then have the pieces in place to acquire that one missing piece the team needs for a championship.
The Astros once again are a great example for this point once again. Before the trade deadline came to an end last year, the team acquired Justin Verlander from the Tigers and Gerrit Cole from the Pirates to solidify their one weakness: starting pitching.
While trades do not always lead to a title (example being the Rangers in the past eight years), they will help those odds a lot, especially if that player pans out like Cole and Verlander did.
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