A lot of Rangers related trade talk, per Joel Sherman....

We thought we had Garko, Blue Jays want 3 from our top-tier and we rejected a trade for Scott Kazmir.

In the late afternoon on Monday, the Rangers were convinced they were the front-runners to get Ryan Garko from the Indians. They were surprised when he ended up going to the Giants instead. Texas is still trying to find a righty-hitting first baseman.

The Rangers' No. 1 priority remains a starter, however, and they are very much part of the Roy Halladay sweepstakes. But at the moment Texas has two stumbling blocks when it comes to the Blue Jays ace: Toronto is emphasizing that three of the club's best 5-6 prospects be included and that group is all at either Triple-A or the majors (think Neftali Feliz, Derek Holland and Justin Smoak types) and the Rangers are very concerned about giving up so many high-ceiling, cost-effective youngsters ready to play in the majors now.

But the bigger stumbling block is finances. At the moment, the Blue Jays refuse to either take back a near counterbalance contract such as Vicente Padilla and or take on a chunk of the approximately $7 million left on Halladay's 2009 contract as a way to get into the Rangers' stacked farm system.

The Rangers turned down an offer to bring Scott Kazmir home to Texas. The Rays have shopped Kazmir around a bit, even calling the Mets, who expressed initial interest but nothing more. Tampa is trying to see if they could trade Kazmir, Carlos Pena and in the right blockbuster even Carl Crawford to free up dollars to make a bigger trade. The Rays are most focused on seeing if they can add Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez in one trade, though they continue to call on Halladay, as well.