Rangers clear AL West favorites after adding Jonathan Lucroy, Carlos Beltran

5:21 PM ET

After the Jonathan Lucroy deal between the Milwaukee Brewers and Cleveland Indians fell apart, the Brewers had to find a team what wasn’t on Lucroy’s no-trade list. Luckily, the Texas Rangers needed a catching upgrade as they’ve had to piece the position together with Robinson Chirinos missing a lot of time with injuries. Lucroy and power-armed reliever Jeremy Jeffress head to the Rangers for outfielder Lewis Brinson and pitcher Luis Ortiz.

In addition, the Rangers picked up Carlos Beltran from the Yankees for Dillon Tate, last year’s fourth overall pick who has struggled in Class A this year.

How do you like this lineup?

LF/RF Jurickson Profar/Shin-Soo Choo

RF/LF Nomar Mazara

CF Ian Desmond

3B Adrian Beltre

DH Carlos Beltran

C Jonathan Lucroy

2B Rougned Odor

1B Mitch Moreland

SS Elvis Andrus

The Rangers didn’t get the starting pitcher they needed, but that lineup goes nine deep and gives Jeff Banister the flexibility to do a lot of mixing and matching once Choo returns from the disabled list. Profar can move all over the diamond, Beltran can play the outfield, Delino DeShields is available as a speed guy off the bench, and GM Jon Daniels managed to hold on to Joey Gallo.

If the Rangers hold on to win the AL West, they’ll try to …

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