The trade rumors surrounding the Texas Rangers' Michael Young continue to swirl. The team that keeps coming up in connection with those rumors is the Colorado Rockies. However, Young's contract continues to be the stumbling block to executing a trade, reports the Denver Post's Troy Renck. Young is owed $48 million dollars over the next three seasons and the Rockies want the Rangers to absorb $20 million of that amount.
Colorado is an obvious landing spot for Young because of the uncertainty surrounding the position for the Rockies. Jose Lopez, acquired from the Seattle Mariners during the offseason, is the front-runner for the job entering spring training, but the team will need him to bounce back from a 2010 season in which he had a .609 OPS and a 71 OPS+. Moving out of Safeco Field for his home games and to Coors Field makes him a good candidate to rebound.
His competition includes Jonathan Herrera, who filled in adequately at second base for the month of June and part of July, rookie Chris Nelson and Eric Young Jr.
But should the Rangers and Rockies ever come to an agreement on the trade, what would it look like? Jose Lopez is almost certainly part of the deal. Aaron Cook and his $9.25 million salary could also go. At one point, Eric Young Jr. was a possible addition to the trade. The Rangers previously had interest in minor league outfielder Charlie Blackmon, but Renck believes the Rangers may want Esmil Rogers in the deal.
There's a lot of smoke around this deal, but will there eventually be a true fire to this?