Winter Meetings Day 2: re-Yu-nion? I apologize for this headline.

Earlier today, after the news broke that Arlington native Chris Martin would be returning home for the 2018 season, there was a brief flurry of Twitter action when one national reporter tweeted that the Rangers and Mets were in talks about a Jurickson Profar / Matt Harvey deal. It didn’t seem to make much sense on the surface—Profar is 24 and under team control for the next three seasons, and Harvey is a free agent after 2018—but we’re at Disney and any kind of magic can happen. Even bad magic! Have you seen Planes?

Anyway, the buzz didn’t last long. Jon Daniels swatted the idea in a more official manner later in the evening when we met with him, saying that bringing on someone who would be a free agent after a year is “…not we’re looking to do. At the end of the day, if there’s a value, something we’re interested in, we’d consider it, but I couldn’t see giving up a lot of talent for a one-year guy right now, unless it was just the absolute perfect fit. But we’re looking for guys who are going to be here beyond this year.”

One such name I suggested earlier this week was Gerrit Cole. He fits the description, but one club official told me that while—yes, the Rangers have checked in—the Pirates aren’t just giving away Gerrit Cole, and so far the price has been too high. One writer I talked to from Pittsburgh echoed Daniels’ comments about the trade market, saying that Pittsburgh seemed to be targeting MLB-ready position players as they field offers for Cole. My guess was that the price was probably something in the Nomar Mazara range.

That sort of trades is probably more what one should expect in December. Unlike the trade deadline, the Winter Meetings feature very few “sellers” (The Miami Marlins are one repeat exception: #SellingAgain is their official team hashtag every season, it seems). Most teams are at least trying to make it look like they’re trying to contend, so as to sell tickets. So trades like Yu Darvish for Willie Calhoun and a couple of prospects? Those don’t happen much in the winter. “The deals we’ve been talking about are more talent-for-talent,” Daniels said Monday night. “Everybody’s putting their clubs together, and people aren’t looking to move controllable… anything.” He later clarified that by “controllable” he meant ehhhhhh usually three years, but two could suffice in a pinch.

But while the trade market circles itself like an ouroboros with a top-shelf poker face, the free agent market appears to be getting closer to shifting into action. Daniels doesn’t often talk about specific players, but he spoke with an unusual level of candor today about the possibility of a Yu Darvish return. Daniels said at the time of the trade in July that the team was open to the idea of a reunion, and Daniels said today that the club still feels the same way: “Relationship-wise, it’s very good. A number of us are still in touch with him, have maintained contact.”

“Dating back beyond the trade– for years, it’s been a really good relationship. I think we made a point in the summer to keep him apprised of the trade scenarios. We try to do that with– I remember telling Mark Teixeira, giving him updates. I try to do that in general (more in-season than out of season). I think having a little different level of wanting to accommodate him, just being in a foreign country and all the other things related to (his situation). I think the relationship is very good, (so) there are no other factors, other than the traditional free-agent decision points.”

Money, he means. He’s talking about money.

“Yeah, that’s a big part of it, on both sides, right? But it’s not the only one. Could be any number of things, from family, fit, chance to win, proximity to home, and all the normal things that a player would consider.”

It must be kind of a relief as a GM to only have to worry about “the traditional free-agent decision points” again.

You can read this as you like, but one thing Daniels didn’t say: “we are actively pursuing a reunion with Yu Darvish.” That would be a real story. This? This is just an update to let everyone know that things are still status quo.

The same is true for the bullpen situation. Even after the addition of Chris Martin, Daniels said that the team is still looking to add bullpen help. Right now, the Rangers bullpen looks like this: Alex Claudio, Jake Diekman, Keone Kela, Tony Barnette, Chris Martin, and That’s five, assuming Matt Bush follows through with his hopes to become a starter. If he doesn’t, that’s six.

The next tier features Connor Sadzeck, Jose Leclerc, Ricky Rodriguez, and Nick Gardewine. That’s nine. Is that enough?

“I’ll just say this,” Daniels said, leaning back in his chair. “I had the GM of another AL team last year tell me that they thought we were going to be the second-best bullpen in baseball last year, based on their projections. It was Dyson, Diekman, Bush, Kela, Barnette, Claudio-who wasn’t even thought of as ‘Claudio’ at that time—and Jeffress, and it was like ‘wow, you guys have eight guys’.”

You can all remember how that turned out.

“It was about as bad an outcome as it could have been, which–” he shrugged “…is always possible. My point is, we’re not looking at like (we have) a seven-man pen, line it up right now. We need like… 18 guys, 20 guys.”

If you’re a relief pitcher and you can read this, you might want to have your man touch base with the Rangers.

We’ll see if the hotel bar serves as a bit of WD-40 to get this free agent / trade market unstuck. If not, maybe tomorrow’s story will feature an in-depth look at the goings-on from the trade show downstairs.