Well, it looks like to the bitter jaded fan that Carlos Delgado was using the Rangers to jack up the price of his contract with other teams. That may very well be the case, but my gut feeling says no.
The Ft Worth Star Telegram and the Dallas Morning News both say that the Rangers have dropped out of the Delgado bidding after he turned down our 4 year $48 million offer. It really would have helped us. A LOT. Would have done wonders in this lineup. Read where we were also going to give him uniform #25.
So with Delgado out, that means our regular LH DH will likely be David Dellucci. While not a scrub, he’s not the thunderstick that Delgado could have been.
Sigh. If they still want to bring in someone from the outside to be a DH, the only likely candidates are Jeromy Burnitz, who doesn’t thrill me, and Magglio Ordonez. Mags could be good, but there’s two things against him. First is major knee surgery (which is what Brian Jordan had I think), and second (and most importantly), Scott Boras.

Overnight a few articles have come out saying what the Rangers have apparently offered Delgado.
This wire story says that it’s 4 years, and $40 million.
This New York Times Article last evening said it was 3 years and $39 million, but later in the evening changed it to 4 years and $48 million.
Don’t really know what to believe, although all the reports seem to indicate that we’ve offered 4 years, which is what he’s wanted. I suppose we’ll find out for sure tomorrow, which is according to several reports when he’ll decide on the Rangers.

Apparently, the Carlos Delgado meeting went pretty well with our offer being surprising to Delgado and his agent. There’s apparently going to be another meeting of some sort tomorrow, and there’s a chance Delgado will decide on the Rangers’ offer on Sunday.
More here, here, and here.

This morning comes the (pretty much expected) news that Texas Rangers GM John Hart and Manager Buck Showalter have been given contract extensions. Can’t say I’m surprised by either move.
The former I’m not terribly sold on, I still think that Grady Fuson would have been a better GM than John Hart is. Hart still seems to not turn up for bad news, he seems (to my eyes) to only want to talk about good news. On the other hand, I don’t view him with the vitriol that some do (Randy Galloway for example). I doubt any GM is out to tank the team, but I just would have preferred Grady Fuson. Hart’s contract is for two years renewable annually. That’s what the news stories say. We’ll see if it really is just two years, and isn’t some sort of “open ended” thing due to the verbiage of “annually”.
Buck Showalter on the other hand I was a bit more intersted in seeing an extension on. I rather like him, and was glad to see we’ve got him on board for awhile. His new extension (three years) locks him to the Rangers through the 2009 season (with a club option for 2010). The 2005 season is the third of the original four year contract that Showalter received. If you believe the stories, Showalter was the behind the scenes power that forced Fuson out and kept Hart as GM, as it gives Buck a GM that’s easier to his own whims and decisions. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but it’s obvious Showalter is a powerful person. I’ve spoken with him a few times, and as a fan, he always seems (to my eyes) to go out of his way to make sure the fans are included, thought of – something that not many baseball men do anymore. I like that.
So I give the moves a thumbs up, but not all the way up because of the extension (and the open ended nature of it) to Hart. You can read more details on this over at the Rangers website here.