Texas Rangers rumors: Carlos Gomez on Rangers radar

Texas Rangers rumors:  Carlos Gomez, Milwaukee Brewers center fielder, is on the Rangers' radar, and according to Ken Rosenthal, the Rangers have "reached out to the Brewers about Gomez."

Rosenthal says the Rangers "are operating aggressively as both buyers and sellers," and acquiring Gomez, who is under contract through 2016 (while being owed just $9 million next year) would allow the Rangers to move Delino DeShields to left field, where he is a better fit, defensively.

Interestingly, while we've talked about the Rangers likely looking to move Shin-Soo Choo this offseason, Rosenthal goes so far as to say that the Rangers are "expected to trade" Choo in the offseason.  That's the strongest I've heard that position put forth, though that doesn't surprise me.

Acquiring Gomez would allow the Rangers to go into next season with an outfield of DeShields, Gomez and Josh Hamilton, with Leonys Martin potentially brought back as a fourth outfielder or moved to another team.  Gomez is a righthanded hitter who is considered a solid defender in center.  His offense is down a little bit this season, as he's hitting .266/.334/.431 with 7 steals in 12 attempts after putting up a .284/.347/.491 line the previous two seasons with 74 steals in 93 attempts, but he's still an above-average center fielder who would be a good addition to this team.

The question, of course, is what the cost of acquiring Gomez would be.  In a market where there's a shortage of hitters, Milwaukee seems to be in a position to extract maximum value if they trade Gomez, and I'm not sure that Gomez represents so much of an upgrade that it would be worth the Rangers dealing significant prospects to acquire him for a year and two months.