Rangers to address wish list at Winter Meetings

ARLINGTON — At some point the rumors have to stop and deals have to be made.

The Winter Meetings are a good place to make that happen, as the Rangers explore the possibility of trading for White Sox left-hander Chris Sale or Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen, or seek to consummate a deal with one of the remaining free-agent starters, whether it’s Rich Hill, Derek Holland or Colby Lewis.

They might even address the significant holes in the offense created by Ian Desmond, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Gomez and Mitch Moreland becoming free agents. Re-signing either Desmond or Gomez would be a major step, or the club could pursue a free-agent slugger, such as Edwin Encarnacion, Mike Napoli or Chris Carter.

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The Rangers aren’t going to get everybody on their list, but they should be active at the Winter Meetings.

MLB.com and MLB Network will have wall-to-wall coverage of the 2016 Winter Meetings from the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center outside Washington, D.C. Fans can watch live streaming of all news conferences and manager availability on MLB.com, including the Rule 5 Draft on Dec. 8 at 8 a.m. CT.

Club Needs

Starting pitching: Right now the Rangers have a rotation of Cole Hamels, Yu Darvish, Martin Perez and Andrew Cashner. A.J. Griffin and Nick Martinez are the leading candidates to be the fifth starter but the Texas is pursuing more. Hill, Holland and Lewis are all possibilities. Among the …

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