As the month of November rolls on, the MLB offseason is beginning to pick up steam.  A few players have signed new contracts, relief pitcher Will Smith is headed to the Braves, and a few players have opted to skip free agency all together with Twins pitcher Jake Odorizzi and White Sox slugger Jose Abreu accepting their $17.8 million qualifying offers for 2020.

Oh and you might have heard about some sort of controversy surrounding the Houston Astros? I don’t know, it was kind of a minor ordeal.

Astros using cameras to steal signs, a breakdown pic.twitter.com/rncm6qzXxw

— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) November 12, 2019

Hate directed towards the Astros? Rangers fans just hate to see it.

Here are a couple notable items that have developed over the last several days for the Rangers.

Smoke picking up around Josh Donaldson to Texas

The Texas #Rangers are making an aggressive push to sign free agent Josh Donaldson

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) November 13, 2019

Texas’ long expected pursuit of Donaldson was confirmed by numerous reports this week at the GM Meetings.  Following an injury-plagued 2018 campaign in Cleveland and Toronto, Donaldson bounced back in 2019 that was similar to the type of production that won him the 2015 American League MVP Award.

Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News also confirmed the Rangers have checked in on Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon. “Checked in” has a lot different feel to it than an “aggressive push” so who knows how serious Texas is about inserting themselves into the Rendon Derby this winter.

Edinson Volquez not done after all?
After an injury early in the 2019 season pushed veteran pitcher Edinson Volquez into leaning towards retirement after the season ended, it looked like a wrap on the 36-year old’s long career.  However,  a different story began to develop while members of the Rangers organization were in Volquez’s native Dominican Republic this week for work at their team facility in the area.

Rangers working on bringing Edinson Volquez back as a reliever in a Minor League deal

— TR Sullivan (@Sullivan_Ranger) November 15, 2019

Volquez’s return late in the season was a feel good story as he went a full five months between pitching appearances (April 4th to September 1st).  An elbow injury sidelined him less than a week into the 2019 season and he passed on surgery because he knew it would be the end of his career.  A lengthy recovery and rehabilitation process followed and Volquez stayed around the team virtually the entire time.  When you’d walk through the clubhouse before and after a game, Edinson was always there interacting and making teammates laugh.  The TV cameras would often catch him doing the same in the dugout during games.

The Rangers value the presence of a veteran like Volquez as they look to reshape their bullpen around young arms like Jose Leclerc and Emmanuel Clase. A minor league deal for him would be a minimal investment in someone who could turn out to be a major contributor in many different ways in 2020.