Alex Rios is likely to be dealt by Thursday's 3 p.m. trade deadline, but the Texas Rangers had a bit of a scare on Wednesday night when their big trade chip took a bean ball off the leg and was removed from the game after two at-bats in the fifth inning.
Rios was removed after suffering a bruised left quad, but after the game the Rangers said the move was precautionary.
That line can be interpreted in a few ways, but the main one is that the Rangers didn't want to scare off any potential buyers by thinking he'd suffered a significant injury a day before the deadline. They also didn't want to send him back out injured with a chance of either furthering the injury or just looking bad.
Rios, who has a club option for the 2015 season and would be a free agent next winter, has been the Rangers' second-best offensive player this year and is arguably the top bat on the trade market, despite an alarming lack of power this year. He's batting .304 this year with 43 RBIs, 16 stolen bases and has a league-high eight triples. He's also only one of four regular Rangers position players to have not seen the disabled list this year.
