Aggressive Rangers taking aim at Sale, Archer

THE RANGERS obtained a stopgap starter, Lucas Harrell, from the Braves on Wednesday, but they are not done. They are among the most aggressive teams looking for a starter and they have a deep farm system, though they gave up a lot last July to get Cole Hamels.

The Rangers are seeing if they can find a combination of prospects they are comfortable giving up for a top-of-the-rotation type such as the White Sox’s Chris Sale or the Rays’ Chris Archer. Meanwhile, they continue to stay in contact about the next level of starter, which includes Tampa Bay’s Matt Moore and Jake Odorizzi, and San Diego’s Andrew Cashner. They have remained in contact with the Yankees about Ivan Nova and perhaps Michael Pineda, plus Andrew Miller and Carlos Beltran.

The Yankees, as of Thursday, wanted to keep trying to win in 2016, which meant they would move Nova, but currently plan to keep Miller and Beltran.

This week Royals GM Dayton Moore told me, “Ian Kennedy has been exactly what we thought.”

The former Yankees right-hander has missed a bunch of bats (9.2 strikeouts per nine innings, 19th among qualified starters) and yielded homers (26, tied for the most in the majors). That makes him a lot like Pineda, except the Yankees did not give Pineda a five-year, $70 million deal before the season.

So before Season 1 of that deal is up, Kansas City has talked to clubs about attaching Kennedy to Wade Davis in a trade. That has not appeared to have much traction because Kennedy has four years at $62.5 million left after this season (he can opt out after 2017, which currently is unlikely). The Dodgers and Nationals are known to be interested in Davis, who has a $10 million option for next season.

The Dodgers would like to pair Davis with current closer Kenley Jansen, then have Davis to close next year because Dodgers officials believe Jansen could get a five-year deal in the $75 million range as a free agent.