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Rangers Pursue Hunter, Rowand; Schilling A Possibility?

We may be just two days deep into November, but the hot stove season is already heating up.

T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com reports that the Texas Rangers have “officially expressed interest” in free agent center fielders Torii Hunter and Aaron Rowand, which simply means that they have contacted their respective agents. GM Jon Daniels offered a few interesting snippets to the media on Thursday, which mainly concern the team’s greatest areas of need in this winter’s free agent market:

“We’ve probably called a dozen agents, representing 30 players, and those guys are two of the players we talked about,” Daniels said on Thursday.

[…]

“We would like to add veterans to our bullpen and, depending on how the outfield shakes out, we may look at first base too,” Daniels said.

[…]

Daniels said he has not talked to too many agents about starting pitching.

“There are just not that many starting pitchers that I would consider a fit here,” Daniels said.

That last line probably isn’t what some Ranger fans wanted to hear. However, Sullivan teased the unlikely but not impossible scenario of veteran right-hander Curt Schilling joining Texas in 2008, saying that “there are those in the Rangers organization who would love Schilling” in his Halloween blog entry over at “Postcards from Elysian Fields.”

Schilling failed to name Texas as one of the twelve teams other than the Red Sox that he would consider signing with this winter. That isn’t to say that Schilling wouldn’t listen intently if, hypothetically, the Rangers came calling with a one year contract offer worth $15-16 million.

But when taking into account the growing decline in Schilling’s key peripheral statistics (K/9 and WHIP), along with the fact that he’ll be 41 on Opening Day ‘08, there’s not really a justifiable reason to blow that kind of dough on Curt - even on a relatively low-risk one year deal. Unless, of course, you’re of the opinion that all the Rangers need to compete next year is one more competent starting pitcher.

The hunt for Don Wakamatsu’s replacement in the third base coach’s box rolls on, as the Rangers conducted interviews with former Oakland A’s coach Brad Fischer and veteran catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. on Thursday. Thanks for those 128 lousy at-bats back in 2005, I guess.

Texas also interviewed minor league manager Matt Walbeck on Friday, who won the 2007 Eastern League Manager of the Year award with the Double-A Erie SeaWolves of the Detroit Tigers organization. Jerry Narron, on the other hand, has declined interest in the job. Just a hunch, but I expect to see something get done here by Wednesday.

Assistant GM Thad Levine suggested earlier this week that the Rangers might revisit the possibility of a long-term contract extension this winter for second baseman Ian Kinsler, despite the fact that he is not yet arbitration eligible until after the 2008 season. Let’s hope things go smoother this time around than back during spring training, when negotiations fell apart and the two sides settled for a one year deal.

The full list of AL Elias rankings are out for our perusal; however, as Lone Star Ball’s Adam Morris points out, they’re more than a little messed up.

Former Newberg Report contributor Mike Hindman has his latest blog entry up over at “Rangers Farm Report,” which provides an in-depth salary breakdown of each member of the current 40-man roster. Hindman concludes that Jon Daniels and company will have approximately $30 million to spend this winter, assuming that he’s working under a Hicks-induced payroll cap of $70-75 million. As always, really nice work by Hindman in putting these numbers together.

Long-time Rangers announcers Mark Holtz and Eric Nadel are once again up for the prestigious Ford C. Frick Award, which is presented annually to a broadcaster for “major contributions to baseball.” Nadel will begin his 30th year broadcasting Texas Rangers baseball in 2008, while Holtz’s cult legend status in Rangers folklore speaks for itself. For those interested in the latest drive to enshrine Holtz in the Hall of Fame, you can get involved by voting here.

According to league sources, Yankee team executives were told that in order to arrange a meeting with Alex Rodriguez before his decision to opt out of his contract and become a free agent, they would have to make an extension offer that would have increased the total value of his megadeal to $350 million. Yikes.

And finally, the Associated Press brings us this heartwarming headline:

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Sammy Sosa wants to play in the majors next year, provided a team offers him a contract for at least $7 million.

I want to touch on this much more extensively later today, but since I’m strapped for time at the moment, I’ll reduce my thoughts to a single sentence:

You been drinking much lately, Sammy?

This entry was posted on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 11:59 pm and is filed under The Off-Season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.