The addition of outfielder Matt Holliday (pictured) to the AL West picture should prove most interesting. - Brad Pouch/Flickr.comAs much as it might sting to see a premium corner outfielder like Matt Holliday coming to roost in the AL West for most, if not all of the 2009 season as part of the pesky Oakland Athletics, we should console ourselves with the knowledge that toolsy young outfielder Carlos Gonzalez has been expelled from this increasingly fascinating division, assuming that the principal names disclosed in separate reports filed by SI.com's Jon Heyman and FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal are indeed accurate.

The second and third pieces in this purported deal headed back the Colorado Rockies' direction, southpaw Greg Smith and closer-turned-setup man Huston Street, are a trifle less alluring. Smith struggled mightily against Texas in 2008 in terms of pure run prevention (6.51 ERA in 27.2 IP), though his peripherals in those five starts (6.83 K/9, 2.93 BB/9) curiously blew his walk and strikeout ratios for the entire season out of the water (5.25 K/9, 4.11 BB/9), where he inexplicably fared far better (4.16 ERA in 190.1 IP) but might have floundered in a normalized, fielding-independent environment (5.36 xFIP)

Needless to say, one Athletics fan I have known and respected for many years rightly characterized his age-24 season as something of a fluke, and while there's certainly a chance that he'll take that next critical step forward in his development in 2009, there's probably an equally strong chance that he'll regress into mediocrity.

Street is, well, Street: a known commodity who will give you roughly 70 innings of above-average relief a season and not complain while doing it. The pitch data compiled by Baseball Info Solutions and published by FanGraphs indicates he has lost some zip off his fastball each year since 2006, but Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle noted back on September 1st that Street's velocity had climbed "back up in the 93 mph range," with his slider looking noticeably "sharp[er]."

Both Rosenthal and Scott Miller of CBSSports.com intimate that the Rockies could turn right back around and flip Street for additional prospects, and it may not require an overactive imagination to think that the Rangers -- who are actively seeking bullpen reinforcements, and who most recently looked into the possibility of signing former Nationals closer Chad Cordero, the recipient of surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder on July 8th -- might conceivably get involved in the hunt with Athletics general manager Billy Beane out of the picture, particularly given that Street is an Austin, Texas native and an attendee of the University of Texas campus of the same location.

By the way, Holliday reportedly rejected a four-year, $68 million offer from the Rockies with an attached fifth-year option that, if exercised, would have taken the contract's total value past the $85 million mark. Oakland may yet trade him, perhaps even at some point during the next several months (though that seems implausible, given the Athletics' apparent pursuit of free-agent shortstop Rafael Furcal), but barring an especially implausible long-term contract extension before the onset of spring training, Holliday will be walking come next November.

It's up to Beane to determine what will be of more value to his team in 2010 and beyond: the inevitable pair of compensatory draft picks or the tantalizing trade return Holliday would net, which will only grow less tantalizing with each month that passes during the regular season leading up to the July 31st non-waiver trading deadline.

This is going to be one wild winter.

● More from Rosenthal:

The Nationals, carrying out their pledge to be aggressive this offseason, have acquired left-hander Scott Olsen and outfielder Josh Willingham from the Marlins, according to major-league sources.

In return, the Marlins will receive second baseman Emilio Bonifacio and two minor leaguers: Single A right-hander P.J. Dean and outfielder Jake Smolinski.

Thank heavens that's all over. No idea whether this jump-starts trade talks between the Rangers and Marlins for a more attractive starting pitchers on Florida's end now that Olsen is headed to the nation's capital, but it can't possibly hurt.

● Not a single Ranger procured a first-, second- or third-place vote in the 2008 AL Rookie of the Year balloting (no, not even Chris Davis, who hit a stellar .285/.331/.549 with 17 home runs during his 80-game rookie campaign), but Cincinnati's Edinson Volquez did manage to snag three second-place votes and fourth place in the Senior Circuit voting -- even though his rookie eligibility had already been exhausted in 2007 once he had surpassed the 50-inning threshold for his Major League career.

Can't wait to see how the BBWAA screws up the Cy Young and MVP voting.

● You might say that Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus is rather bullish on Julio Borbon and Justin Smoak:

I saw Smoak just once, actually for Peoria, which picked him up in a trade. Yeah, trades in the AFL... who knew? Like [Matt] Wieters, he just looked better than the league, and I flashed back to seeing Mark Teixeira in my first AFL trip in 2002. That seemed too easy--two switch-hitting first basemen in Rangers uniforms--but the comp was more about how they looked at the plate and in the field. No, I don't know where Jason Castro was.

[...] The Rangers' Julio Borbon worked deep counts and is very fast; if the patience is real he could be huge for them.

● According to general manager Jon Daniels, infielder Joaquin Arias exhibited better arm strength during a Monday workout session in Arlington and will play shortstop in the Dominican Republic later this week underneath the supervision of Scott Servais and A.J. Preller.

Free agent sinkerballer Jamey Wright is not one of the Rangers' main targets of the off-season -- not that he should be, mind you.

● Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram clarifies Jarrod Saltalamacchia's eyebrow-raising comments published by Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe this past weekend, in which the 23-year-old backstop asserted that playing for the Red Sox would be "a dream come true":

[...] Saltalamacchia wants to make it perfectly clear that his No. 1 goal is to be the Rangers' everyday catcher, not the future catcher of the Boston Red Sox. He doesn't deny saying that he would like working with Jason Varitek in Boston [...] Saltalamacchia said that he was asked a hypothetical question and gave a hypothetical answer.

"Texas is my first priority," Saltalamacchia said. "I love the guys there. I would love the chance to play every day. I would love to be in Texas being their everyday catcher."

General manager Jon Daniels said earlier Monday that he Saltalamacchia's answer was probably to a what-if type question and wasn't too worried about it.

In any event, Saltalamacchia has been cleared by Servais to participate in Dominican winter-ball festivities and will catch five days a week for 30 days.

● MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan reiterates that the Rangers' 2009 payroll will be "likely" be somewhere between $70 million and $75 million, suggesting that Texas has little money to play with in free agency.

● Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports has published what he has affectionately dubbed the "ultimate free-agent tracker," which features Milton Bradley at number 18 ("Should get the multiyear deal he covets, but no chance anyone goes four years for $40 million because of health concerns - physical and mental"), Ramon Vazquez at number 86 ("Breakout candidate? He was good last year, but a .349 average on balls in play makes a regression likely"), Jason Jennings at number 147 ("Flexor-tendon surgery in consecutive years is the stuff of which minor-league contracts are made") and Wright at number 151 ("Another candidate for Japan, unless he wants to do the whole stay-in-the-minors-waiting-for-an-injury thing again").

● And finally, courtesy of ESPN.com's Buster Olney:

Trevor Hoffman, the all-time leaders in saves and the face of the San Diego franchise, will not return to the Padres for 2009. The team has withdrawn its contract offer for 2009 to Hoffman, who is eligible for free agency this fall.

Just sayin'.