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.
The Rangers are also hopeful Neftali Feliz will return before too long, giving them an excess of right-handed pitchers and some serious major-league ammunition for the trade market. The Rangers have a deep farm system as well.
Lowe was thought to be available in spring, but Feldman is a new name who could go in trade. Feldman is a talented pitcher, although he isn't off to a great start (0-3, 4.50). Feldman has been filling in for Feliz in the rotation while he's out with an elbow injury. Lowe has pitched very well (0-0, 2.87) this year with a strikeout an inning.
Oswalt, who signed a minor-league deal for $5 million with Texas and was said by a scout to have looked great in his workout, could be ready to join the Rangers' rotation by late June. Scheppers, closing games at Round Rock, is another strikeout-an-inning guy. Speaking of Texas, one scout said, "Just about everyone they have throws 95 mph.'' (Nolan Ryan is the club president, so perhaps this isn't a coincidence.)
Both Lowe and Feldman gave up big home runs in the Rangers' crushing World Series Game 6 defeat last year, as Feldman allowed the two-out, two-strike single to Lance Berkman and Lowe the game-winning home run to David Freese. That both of them will be available in trade surely is a coincidence.
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