UPDATE: CBS Sports' Jon Heyman is now reporting Cotts was claimed by an unnamed team. That means the Rangers have 48 hours to either pull Cotts back, let the team have him for nothing and pay his remaining contract, or work out a trade with the club.
It's Aug. 20, 11 days before the deadline which a player must be on a team's roster to participate in postseason play. Of course, the Texas Rangers don't have any postseason games to worry about this season, but there are lots of other teams that might.
The Rangers entered the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline with two guys who were suspected to be on the move in Alex Rios and reliever Neal Cotts. Rios cleared waivers shortly after the deadline, and has yet to be traded. For some reason, Cotts was just placed on waivers on Monday and will find out today if he cleared through or was claimed by a team.
That begs a big question. Why did it take so long for the Rangers to put arguably their most tradeable commodity on waivers?
It's easy to see the Rangers want Cotts back in 2015 (he's free this winter), and by all accounts they've already reached out to Cotts about returning in 2015. So why not deal the man for two months, get something in return and then work out a deal to bring him back next season in free agency?
Being that he's a rental, Cotts isn't going to bring back a huge return, but he's starting to pitch very well again and he's a lefty reliever, which is always a valuable piece to add for contending teams. At this point, why not just get something back, especially if you have a good relationship with Cotts and know he will come back next season? It didn't make much sense to hold Cotts off waivers for as long as the Rangers did. Hopefully for their sake, they didn't move too late.
