The Texas Rangers made a move at the trade deadline that looked tidy on paper and feels shakier by the day.
On August 3, Texas sent Josh Smith to the Toronto Blue Jays for left-hander Adam Macko, a swap that made sense in the moment. Smith appeared blocked on the roster, and the Rangers chose to turn him into a controllable arm with some upside. But the deal has played out in a way that makes the decision look a lot less clean.
Smith was squeezed out by the rise of Nicky Lopez, who had stepped into the strongside platoon job at second base and provided a brief burst of energy. That window slammed shut fast.
Lopez went 0-for-19 in the week before the deadline, then settled back into his usual role as the final bench option. Since August 4, he has only 40 at-bats and is hitting .200.
Smith, meanwhile, has found life in Toronto. He has hit .257/.381/.600 since the move.
Macko’s side of the deal has not given Texas much to grab onto. He opened with Round Rock and put up a 5.63 ERA over eight innings there.
Before that, he had a 4.07 ERA in 24 1/3 innings with Toronto’s Triple-A club and a 4.91 ERA across 22 major league innings with the Blue Jays. The Rangers brought him up on August 28 to help with a battered bullpen, but he has allowed three runs in 4 1/3 innings since.
The frustrating part for Texas is that Smith had already shown he could be useful. In 2024 and 2025, he posted wRC+ figures of 113 and 101, along with 2.9 fWAR and 1.8 fWAR. This season was supposed to be his opening to take over second base after Marcus Semien headed to Queens with the New York Mets.
Instead, wrist inflammation and viral meningitis knocked him off track, and Ezequiel Duran’s breakout plus Lopez’s short-lived usefulness pushed him further down the pecking order. Smith didn’t help his case, either, slashing .213/.299/.272 in a Rangers uniform this year.
Still, there’s reason to think the Rangers may have sold low. Wrist issues can linger and drag down a hitter long after the injury itself has eased.
Viral meningitis can leave a player dealing with fatigue and low energy for weeks or even months after the virus is gone. The source of Smith’s downturn isn’t certain, but the gap between his Texas production and what he’s done in Toronto suggests something was off.
Smith is not a power hitter, so the .600 slugging mark in Toronto won’t last. Even so, a 100-110 wRC+ stretch from here would not be hard to imagine.
That kind of production would have mattered for Texas in 2027 and beyond, especially with Smith under team control through 2028. He could have formed a strong second base platoon with Justin Foscue.
Macko could still turn into a steal, but so far he has not done enough at Triple-A or in the majors to make that feel likely. Smith has already shown he can help, and that has value.
For the Rangers, the trade looks like a case of certainty being traded away for uncertainty. And right now, Texas could use Smith’s bat a whole lot more than Macko’s arm.
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