ARLINGTON, Texas — While the news of Yu Darvish's signing was still fresh, Rangers general manager Jon Daniels quickly delivered a dose of reality to fans dreaming of a Darvish-Prince Fielder combo platter this offseason.
"I'm intimately aware of our budget because of the process that [we] just went through," Daniels said. "It's very unlikely."
Of course, that was the same kind of language Daniels used last December at the winter meetings when he said he didn't think the Rangers would be big players in the Darvish sweepstakes. That was before the club bid $51.7 million to negotiate with him and completed the process by committing another $60 million to Darvish on Wednesday.
The Rangers have interest in Fielder. They met with him Friday in Dallas as the free-agent first baseman made his rounds. Team president Nolan Ryan said the meeting was just to gauge where Fielder was in the free-agent process.
While Fielder may not be financially feasible for the Rangers in the wake of the Darvish signing, the club still has holes to fill, most notably in the bullpen, and Daniels said that any moves made before spring training might not be big ones.
"I don't expect we'll do anything real big the rest of the winter," he said. "But we're going to get the next couple of days in the books, welcome Yu to Texas and then take a step back and look at things."
One of the things the Rangers will have to look at is the makeup of the rotation. Darvish, Colby Lewis, Derek Holland and Neftali Feliz appear to be locks. That leaves Matt Harrison and Alexi Ogando as the two front runners for the final rotation spot.
The Rangers easily could shift Ogando back to the bullpen, where he spent the 2010 season. Ogando said over the weekend that he is preparing to be a starter but would go to the bullpen if that's what the team decided.
Harrison also has experience as a reliever and would give the Rangers a left-hander in the bullpen, which the team doesn't have.
