Alex Rios was claimed on waivers by the Rangers yesterday, and today they completed a trade with the White Sox for him in exchange for Leury Garcia. Garcia isn't much of anything other than a utility man, so mostly the White Sox are trading for salary relief here (they're only sending $1 million the Rangers way). It's impossible to know what was or wasn't offered for Rios before the deadline by anyone, so I'm not sure wasting time on wondering what the Pirates could've done to get Rios is worth the effort at this point — the Pirates probably would've been willing to take on some of his contract but probably not nearly as much as the Rangers have assumed here. Rios is playing pretty poorly in the second half, so I'm inclined to think of the whole Alex Rios dalliance as water under the bridge.
Also, Pirates Prospects is reporting today that the Bucs have signed 16-year old Dominican outfielder Jeremias Portorreal for $375,000.This is the Pirates' third six-figure signing of the Latin American signing period.
