Don't Rule Out Rangers on Anything

We here at Red Fever have known it for quite some time — You can never rule out Nolan Ryan, Jon Daniels and the rest of the Texas Rangers brass on anything.

The rest of the country is starting to figure that out too, as national baseball writer Jon Paul Morosi wrote this morning.

Morosi said the Rangers are starting to work their way up into New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox territory of being teams you can never count out of any race for any player.

The Rangers won the bidding rights to negotiate with Japanese phenom Yu Darvish and will most likely sign him by the Wednesday deadline of 4 p.m. Central.

The only tie-up there is that Darvish wants five years, and the Rangers want six. But the deal will happen.

But there's another domino prepared to fall when the Darvish decision comes down, one way or another.

It's clear at this point that free agent first baseman Prince Fielder, a 27-year-old power hitting behemoth with a left-handed stroke that would be tailor-made for short porch in Rangers Ballpark, is waiting to make a move until after the Darvish thing plays out. Fielder met with Rangers executives in Dallas on Friday, and it seems evident that Texas is one of his top choices.

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But can the Rangers bring in both guys? Certainly.

If the Rangers sign Fielder to say, a six-year deal, they'd have him locked up through his prime but it would be highly unlikely they'd be able to sign Josh Hamilton next season when he becomes a free agent. It'd be tough to let Hamilton walk because he's such a beloved figure in DFW, but business is business and signing a 32-year-old with durability issues that plays with a reckless abandon to a six- or seven-year deal isn't good business.

Signing Fielder would open up the option of trading Mitch Moreland and possibly even hot prospect Mike Olt, who would be shut out at yet another position (he's originally a third baseman and Adrian Beltre mans that position).

To put it simply, this team has a ton of options and if they've taught us anything in recent years it's that they're never out of anything.

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