Ken Rosenthal has a story up about Frank Francisco and the Rangers, saying that Francisco is expected to accept arbitration by the midnight, December 7, deadline.
Frankie is a Type A free agent, so if another team were to sign him, that team would forfeit a draft pick. With Francisco having missed the last month of the season, and all of the playoffs, because of an injury, Francisco apparently figures he's better off accepting arbitration, and landing a one year deal of around $5 million, than hoping for a team to be willing to do better than that at the cost of a first or second round pick.
Francisco accepting arbitration would also give the Rangers more depth in their bullpen, allowing them to experiment this spring with using Neftali Feliz or Alexi Ogando as a starter. If Frankie returns, the Rangers could put him back into his old closer's role, and move Feliz into the rotation, with Ogando filling the 8th inning set up role and being groomed to take over as closer in 2012.