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We have a couple of interesting tweets from Ken Rosenthal, which could mean something, or could mean nothing:
Remember yesterday when @jonmorosi and I said that virtually all of the #Rangers were in play? List includes the newly acquired Matt Garza.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 31, 2013
On #Rangers: They are exploring multiple avenues, aggressively trying to get more offense. Not unusual for them to make creative proposals.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 31, 2013
So what does this mean? My take is that the Rangers are going to listen on anyone, and are on a bubble right now where either buying or selling could make a certain amount of sense. I don't think they are going to trade Garza, or Joe Nathan, or Elvis Andrus (who Rosenthal identified as one of the players the Rangers would "listen" on yesterday), or any other significant contributor to the 2013 team. But I'm guessing if someone asks about anyone right now, Jon Daniels is going to listen.
Other reports indicate that the Rangers continue to inquire on Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, continue to pester the Marlins about Giancarlo Stanton, and have shown varying degrees of interest in Bud Norris and Justin Morneau.
(Why Bud Norris?, you may ask. Well, if the Rangers can only get Bautista by giving up Derek Holland, or get blown away by a Garza offer but don't want to go back to Ross Wolf starting, then they could look at getting Norris. I'm just speculating here, of course but that's what seems to make sense. Danny Knobler also suggests they could be trying to get Norris so that they could flip him for a hitter.)
There are also indications that the Mariners may be softening on their stance of not wanting to trade Mike Morse and Kendrys Morales, and of course Alex Rios is out there.
In any case, this front office's history suggests that they'll be racking up the cell phone minutes, exchanging lots of texts, will be kicking a lot of tires and checking in with a lot of teams...they aren't a group that's going to leave a stone unturned, generally speaking. But as we saw this winter, being in on lots of stuff doesn't mean anything will be consummated.
Three hours left to wait and see...