Heyman: Rangers Expected To Make Lowe, Feldman "Available"

It's a slow day and this front-page post I've been chipping away at hasn't come together nearly as quickly as I had hoped, so here's something from Jon Heyman that may or may not be BS!

With Roy Oswalt now in the fold and hard-throwing prospect Tanner Scheppers pitching well at Triple-A Round Rock, the Rangers are expected to make right-handed pitchers Scott Feldman and Mark Lowe available at the trade deadline, people familiar with their thinking say.

The Rangers, perhaps baseball's best and deepest team, will seek a righty-hitting outfielder in trade.

A couple of things worth noting here ... between the remainder of his 2012 contract and his 2013 buyout, the Rangers still owe Scott Feldman a little more than $5 million, and I could see the motivation in moving a little of that off the books (I doubt any team is going to assume the entire commitment. But there's still value in having an ML-ready and stretched-out long man/spot starter available out of your bullpen, though, and I won't be too surprised if the Rangers end up hanging onto him through at least the end of this season.

As far as Lowe is concerned ... on the one hand, a relief-needy team could overpay for Lowe (particularly if they view him as a legit seventh- or eighth-inning asset), but you also have to account for the impact of the new CBA. With free-agent compensation for all but the most elite of relievers now being out the window, the motivation for non-contenders to move relievers for young pieces has theoretically never been higher -- but the other side of that is that there are fewer non-contenders now in general, thanks to the second wild-card spot added to both leagues. It remains to be seen how those various changes will impact the dynamics of the trade market, and/or whether the Rangers will foresee a Lowe trade providing enough additional value to make such a deal worth it.