It's rare for the Texas Rangers to make a move I dislike, but their one-year deal with Ian Desmond is just plain confusing. Asking a mediocre hitter to play left field when the organization is full of potential part-time or platoon candidates, and giving up a first-round draft pick for the privilege, makes little baseball sense.

For a quick disclaimer, though, I don't think this deal is that important in the grand scheme. It's $8 million, which isn't even everyday-player money and reflects the value of the lost pick, which would have been 19th this June. (As a comparison, the 19th pick this past June was shortstop Kevin Newman, whom I rated as the second-best player in the draft. The 19th pick has also yielded Michael Wacha, Shelby Miller and Andrew Cashner in recent years.) It's not a contract that sinks a franchise; I'm only saying that, given what I know about the player and the team's situation, it's not what I would have advised Texas to do.