he’s not a good defensive SS. But in fairness to Young, some folks seem to think that he is worse at SS than he actually is. If you look at UZR and some other stats, what it looks like to me is that Young had some awful defensive years when he first took over the shortstop job. He wasn’t expecting to move to SS and obviously took some time getting used to playing the position at the major-league level. But after the two terrible years, his fielding has been adequate, though slightly below average and certainly nothing special, but adequate enough to make him a reasonably valuable SS. So his overall defensive numbers (and fans’ perceptions) are skewed by those two awful seasons. The main reason he is such a problem now is that he’s being paid like an elite player when in actuality he is nowhere close to one. And of course it remains to be seen whether his defense will remain at its current level through his decline phase – clearly, the Rangers do not think it will.

Texas never should have signed him to that 5 year, $80 million dollar deal, and no one should consider taking on contract. Even if Texas ate half the money on the deal and it cost the Jays nothing of significance in return, I think I would stay away. This season might well be the only one where you would get a return on the investment.

He’s an aging SS who is making 16 million a year for the next 5 years. He has shown a drastic loss of range in the past few years and his range is only going to get worse. Plus, if he his continuously adamant in his demands to play SS, he will soon be blocking one of our top prospects in Elvis Andrus. Also, in the final year of his deal, he will be 37 years old. So, in effect, you are paying a guy who will be between 32-37 years old $16 million a year.
If he were to move to 3b, he could still be serviceable, as his lack of range wouldnt be shown that much and his bat is still solid. However, the mere thought of getting rid of his contract is great to us Rangers fans, although Young is a clear fan favorite.