Tuesday Afternoon Rangers Notes: So, About A Roy Oswalt Trade ...

Well, I've just made peace with the reality that, from Monday-Wednesday every week from this point forward, it's going to be very difficult for me to produce content ... it is, after all, difficult to write something insightful about a game that you didn't actually watch. With that fully in mind, I'll be seeing what I can do as far as filling in those gaps, and with all of that out of the way, here's a bullet point-centric post that will start small and should mysteriously expand over the next few hours:

● Earlier this morning, we received word from FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal that Roy Oswalt had cleared waivers (accompanied, naturally, by some idle Oswalt-to-LAD trade speculation), and now, as of this afternoon, we're hearing from MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan that a trade is very much "possible," as the Rangers are actively talking to other clubs about Oswalt and appear to be open to the notion of dealing him if the return is appropriate. Sullivan also notes that the Rangers are seeking utility infielder help, but "would likely want more than that for Oswalt," which suggests that (a) they're not going to move him for nothing (or next to nothing), and (b) there are, as I surmised might be the case, forces inside the organization that are anything but sold on Luis Hernandez, Alberto Gonzalez, or Jurickson Profar being the club's utility infielder solution in October. 

This sort of feels like a situation where the Rangers aren't satisfied with what they've gotten from Oswalt to this point, and understand that Oswalt wants to start somewhere, and probably aren't even all that keen themselves on keeping him around ... but they also get that he has some value in terms of being capable of soaking up multiple innings in a relief capacity and functioning as the club's No. 6 starter, and perhaps they still harbor enough distrust of the current rotation as a whole that they're at least somewhat motivated to keep him around. Of course, they don't seem to trust Oswalt very much either, so the whole matter just becomes very murky and complicated to work through.

It's also complicated because of the perception that this was a Nolan Ryan-driven signing, a signing which seemed to be predicated upon Oswalt receiving and keeping a rotation spot, and there have been various and sundry rumblings about Oswalt's state of discontent since he was pulling out of the rotation and slotted into the bullpen. He hadn't requested a trade as of earlier this month, but you have to wonder if Oswalt's clearance of waivers and some dual motivation on the part of both Oswalt and the Rangers to end this relationship is going to result in a trade by the end of the week.