The trade deadline arrives at 3 p.m. Tuesday, and the Rangers very well might not add to the roster for the stretch run.
An impasse was reached with Philadelphia in working on a trade for Cliff Lee, a baseball source said. The Rangers were hoping for the Phillies to take on a portion of the remaining dollars on Lee's contract, but Philadelphia wasn't budging nearly enough.No significant progress had been made with Boston on Josh Beckett, though national reports seem to question how motivated Boston is to move the right-hander.A deal with Cleveland for Shin-Soo Choo also won't happen, and a baseball source said that the Rangers never reached out to Colorado about right-handed reliever Rafael Betancourt.The only other relievers believed to be available are Kansas City closer Jonathan Broxton, who has a 1.402 WHIP and only 25 strikeouts, and desposed Seattle closer Brandon League.By this time a year ago, the Rangers had acquired Koji Uehara and were working on a deal for Mike Adams. That one went down to the wire, as many deals do whenever they are set against a deadline. There remains a chance that the Rangers find a deal, but nothing was imminent as of Monday night."There are more guys who you can reasonably expect to pick it up in the second half than to decline," general manager Jon Daniels said. "And that’s the thing that will make the biggest impact for us -- getting a few guys back off the DL and breaking out of the slump we’ve been in offensively. None of the players that are reasonably available out there can help us anymore than our own guys can."-- Jeff WilsonHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
