Well, it’s done. The trade is official. It’s quite the haul – we got more than had been reported. While I can’t say I’m thrilled at losing a player like Teixeira, I have to say that the haul was far more impressive than was expecting.
Leaving the Rangers:
1B Mark Teixeira
RP Ron Mahay
Returning to Rangers:
C/1B Jarrod Saltamacchia
SS Elvis Andrus (18 yr old A ball, compared to Derek Jeter)
P Netfali Feliz
P Matt Harrison
P Beau Jones
The pitchers are all minor leagues, but are all considered to be really good prospects, not throwaways. As I said before in my other comments, I’m not the best at breaking down individual players. I strongly suggest you check out Jamey Newberg’s report from this morning where he breaks down the players that are inbound. Except for Beau Jones, who was just announced as part of the deal.
I have a poll on the main page of my site about this, where you can weigh in on your opinion.

Ken Rosenthal says that Eric Gagne is going to be traded to the Sox. That’s a tad of a eyebrow raiser – the Sox have a great closer. Gagne has to waive his no trade to go there. Would they put Papelbon as a setup guy? I can’t see Gagne waiving unless he’s the full time closer.
Then there’s that talk about Gagne re-signing here again in the offseason. I wonder if that will happen.
UPDATE @ 2:10PM: TR Sullivan has something up about it now here. Also read where the rumoured players coming back total three. They are 17 year-old five-tool outfielder Engel Beltre (Buster Olney report), as well as Kason Gabbard (Ken Rosenthal), as well as possibly David Murphy (also Rosenthal).

Been reading around the net for reactions to the Tex trade. As expected, they’re all over the place, depending on whom you ask. One of my favorites was over at USS Mariner, who had this to say about the trade:

A total home run for the Rangers here. Teixeira is a good but not great player, and in return for a year and a half of his services at not-bargain rates, they extracted one of the best young catchers in baseball, a very high upside middle infielder, and reportedly got a couple other players of value. A+ for Jon Daniels. Teixeira won’t help the Braves as much as they think he will, and the upgrade from Salty to T-Rex isn’t worth the price they paid. But John Schuerholz is pretty close to being beyond reproach, so that’s all I’ll say about that.

USSM also had something nice to say about the Lofton trade, too.
Tim McMahon over at the Rangers DMN blog called the trade “OK”, saying

This trade doesn’t make you say “Wow!” like a James Loney-Clayton Kershaw-Andre Ethier deal. But I trust it was the best deal available, and it accomplished the goal of getting at least two (maybe three) players who can be part of the Rangers’ core when they’re ready to contend a few years from now.

David O’Brien of the Atlanta Constitution seems to think this is the best trade since sliced bread, really going head over heels about it with:

It’s the most significant midseason trade for the Braves in 14 years, since they got first baseman Fred McGriff from San Diego on July 18, 1993.

Beerleaguer.com (a Philles blog) called the trade a good move for the Braves, and even had something nice to say about Ron Mahay. They did take a knee jerk reaction regarding return of pitching in this move, though.

Not one, but two, significant acquisitions for the Braves’ playoff run. Everyone knows what Teixeira will bring, but Mahay is a nice veteran complimentary part and typical of the kind of move John Schuerholz has made in the past in that he gets some pitching as a throw-in.

Will Schaffer at Chop-n-Change (a Braves fan blog) called the trade “a horrible deal” with this:

it was a horrible deal because the Braves did not land CJ Wilson or Eric Gagne and as more details have come back I have started questioning this deal even more.
….this is one of those deals that we are going to look back on six years down the road and second-guess everything about it.

Good call on his part wanting CJ Wilson, but he wasn’t going anywhere, and I can’t recall Gagne being part of a trade package anywhere.
More to come from elsewhere I’m sure, but I’m still surprised we haven’t seen an announcement of a press conference from the Rangers about this move. The trade is still not announced on the Rangers or Braves sites in their official press release areas. (It’s 4:40PM CST on Monday as I write this).

It appears that Tex is done. Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the deal to move Teixeira out of town is done. The word is that Tex will be going with Ron Mahay for C/1B Jarrod Saltamacchia, Class A shortop Elvis Andrews, and two unnamed pitching prospects.
I see the Ticket howling already about not getting major league pitching. More details as they come out.

The Braves are on the verge of acquiring Rangers first baseman Mark Teixeira.
The deal is done, pending a review of the medical records of the players involved, according to major-league sources.
The Braves will receive Teixeira and left-handed reliever Ron Mahay.
The Rangers will receive catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Class A shortstop Elvis Andrus and two pitching prospects.

UPDATE #1: One of the minor league pitchers is Netfali Feliz. There’s more info about him here and here.

In a move that I don’t think surprises much of anyone, Kenny Lofton was traded to the Cleveland Indians today for minor league catcher Max Ramirez.
Ramirez will be assigned to Class a Bakersfield. According to Jamey Newberg, he’s not on the 40 man, but will be Rule 5 eligible after the season. According to the Rangers media notes for today, Ramirez has been in the Carolina League (A) all season, batting .303 with 20 doubles, 12 home runs, and 62 RBI in 77 games. Pretty decent numbers there. He was on the World team in the recent Futures game in San Fran, as well as being on that league’s All Star game team. You can check out Max’s page on the Minor League Baseball site here. Don’t know what the long term plans are, but it can never hurt to add a good looking piece to the system.
As for Kenny.. I’m actually sad to see him go. Oh, I know we need to give Marlon Byrd a real shot in center field for the rest of the season. For all the right baseball reasons, this was a good move. Kenny was not going to help in 2007 here once the season got going. But heck, he could still bring it at his age. He was our stolen base leader (21), played a good centerfield, and was just someone who seemed like a good guy to have around. So he goes back to Cleveland, one of the more notable stops in his train ride of a career (Astros, Indians, Braves, White Sox, Giants, Pirates, Cubs, Yankees, Phillies, Dodgers, Rangers). Do I hear Mike Morgan getting worried about the number of teams? :)
Anyway, Kenny’s time here was short, but I certainly enjoyed it. One of those guys that would have been awesome down the stretch if we were playing the entire season like the last 3 weeks or so have gone.
The corresponding 25 man roster move with Lofton departing was Nelson Cruz being recalled. Nelson seems to have been passed in the pecking order by Marlon Byrd. I wonder how Cruz will respond now.

A short non draft item.
Scott Feldman was recalled from AAA, and John Rheinecker was sent back there.

The 25 man roster has been set:
Position Players:
C – Gerald Laird
1B – Mark Teixeira
2B – Ian Kinsler
SS – Michael Young
3B – Hank Blalock
OF – Brad Wilkerson
OF – Frank Catalanotto
OF – Kenny Lofton
OF – Nelson Cruz
DH – Sammy Sosa
Bench:
C – Chris Stewart
UT – Matt Kata
UT – Jerry Hairston Jr
Starters:
Kevin Millwood
Vicente Padilla
Brandon McCarthy
Robinson Tejeda
Pen:
Akinori Otsuka (closer)
Kameron Loe
Joaquin Benoit
C.J. Wilson
Ron Mahay
Scott Feldman
Mike Wood
Bruce Chen
Mike Wood & Bruce Chen are roster quirks, as they’ll both be dumped once Jamey Wright comes up to be the fifth starter, and Eric Gagne is ready. Wood I have no real opinion on, but Bruce Chen on the roster is almost as bad as Wright.
Other moves:
Gagne placed on DL, retro to Mar 28
Miguel Ojeda optioned to AAA
Guillermo Quiroz, Marlon Byrd, and Ezequiel Astacio all DFA
And Francisco Cruceta and Adam Fox have been outrighted to AAA & AA respectively.
I’ll have my roster updated some time on Sunday, although I don’t know when exactly, as I have a lot of church stuff going on during the day, and I’m having some more family health problems back home that have consumed a lot of my thoughts.
UPDATE: I created placeholder roster pages for the additions, and put people in the right places so my roster page will be accurate, but I haven’t had time to create the 4 or 5 roster pages for players on the 25 that I didn’t already have pages for. That will come in the next couple of days. Also, uniform numbers for guys not on the 25/40 change a bunch at the last minute when the season starts, so some of the guys might still change their numbers.
Here is the official press release from the Rangers about all this.

In an announcement that came to QUITE a surprise to me, Ameriquest and the Rangers have seperated as corporate sponsors, and effective immediately, the official name of the Ballpark is now..
“Rangers Ballpark in Arlington”
I called Chuck Morgan about it, and asked him “So, is Section 201 returning?” His response was yes, so the stupid bell is being removed from the park this afternoon. When I asked about the actual formal name, he said there are no plans he know of to rebrand it with another corporate sponsor, said something like trying to build the Rangers brand. So while we didn’t get an official return to “The Ballpark in Arlington”, “Rangers Ballpark in Arlington” is close enough.
Not that any of us real fans called it Ameriquest Field anyway. Huzzah! I even offered to come help take the bell out for free.

In a move that will surprise probably nobody, it was announced this afternoon that Sosa will be added to the 40 man roster, and will be with the club on opening day.
I’ve not seen a corresponding drop from the 40 man roster, so it may not actually be “official” yet, this could just be a “we’ll make the move later, but you’re on”. I wonder who loses their job gets cut from the 40 over this one.
UPDATE: This article says that Hairston will be added to the 40 as well, and also goes on to say that it’s not a guarantee they’ve made the club – but why they’d add someone to the 40 on Mar 15th or so and not have ’em break camp is quite odd.
UPDATE 2: Forgot to mention this before. Sosa’s guaranteed salary is $500,000. He can earn a total of 2.2 million in performance bonuses. They’re all tied to plate appearances. Here’s the breakdown:

• $200,000 each for 200, 250, 300
• $250,000 each for 350, 400, 450, & 500
• $300,000 each for 550 & 600

He can also earn a $200,000 bonus on top of that if he would earn Comeback Player of the Year

The first cuts of the spring were announced today. Here they are:
Optioned to AAA: Edinson Volquez, Armando Galarraga, Daniel Haigwood.
Reassigned to Minor League Camp: Thomas Diamond, Eric Hurley, Jose Vargas, & Scott Rice.
Most of these are procedural in my opinion – the only one of these names that had a realistic shot of making the club was Volquez, who by all accounts has been very wild this spring.
According to the official press release from the Rangers, there are now 52 players on the club’s spring training roster. Of the 52 players remaining in camp, 26 are pitchers, six are catchers, 10 are infielders and 10 are outfielders.