Anyone got good seats to the Winter Meetings this year?
T.R. Sullivan reiterates the theme of this offseason: Options, the Rangers have them. If this offseason were a type of offensive scheme in football, it would be the wishbone.
The blocking fullback of the Rangers offseason wishbone option could very well be Mike Napoli, and as Jeff Wilson writes, the Rangers will be meeting with Napoli later today to see if they can convince him to take fewer years but with more time behind the plate than other teams may be offering.
Gerry Fraley writes about the catching situation and notes that the Rangers should have a better idea of what to expect from Geovany Soto, who has to be tendered a contract or not by Friday, and Napoli before the Winter Meetings.
Joey Matches seeks to answer the Mike Napoli question which isn't the same Mike Napoli question unusually hairy/greasy children growing up in the DFW area might be asking their mothers some years down the road.
Richard Durrett continues to look at Rangers areas of need as we head into next week's Winter Meetings. Today Durrett tackles the bullpen which is in for quite a bit of upheaval this winter. (I ctrl+f'd "valverde" and took a hatchet to my laptop.) Koji, please come back.
The DMN is running a series on potential Ranger targets this offseason where they give a percentage chance that the Rangers sign the target. First up was Zack Greinke at a 20% chance and today we have B.J. Upton at 10% chance. A. J. Pierzynski is probably like 97%.
Durrett notes that current Rangers employee Greg Maddux has been named the pitching coach of Team USA for the World Baseball Classic.
Durrett also notes that members of the Rangers that were voted a full share for losing the Wild Card play-in game will have a December to remember perhaps because they've made a Christmas bonus of $16,999.09. That's Kia Soul money! That's also $234,516.67 less than they made last year for reaching Game 7 of the World series.
Finally, in Morning Updates from the future news, in 2014, we'll write about Fraley writing a blog post about Nolan Ryan's new beef cookbook.