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Texas Rangers rumors: Alex Rios has cleared waivers, according to Calvin Watkins of ESPN Dallas.
This means that the Rangers can now trade Rios to any team. It also would seem to at least suggest that, as we've previously hypothesized, the market for Rios isn't all that strong at this point.
If Rios were a valued commodity, it is likely that a team would have claimed him, either to maximize their chances of getting him or to keep him from being dealt to a rival. Teams may have shied away from claiming him out of a fear that the Rangers would simply let him go and dump his contract on the claiming team...while Rios's contract isn't particularly onerous, it doesn't appear likely to have much in the way of surplus value, either.
The Rangers will likely, at this point, market Rios to teams in the playoff race who are looking for a bat, and will probably offer to subsidize some of Rios's remaining $4 million or so he's owed for this year in an effort to get a quality prospect back. Or Texas could decide they don't like the offers they are getting, and hold onto him, with an eye towards exercising his 2015 option of $13.5 million (with a $1 million buyout, which puts the price of bringing him back at a net $12.5 million).
