Monday Morning News and Links

– Over the weekend Mike Adams reportedly came to an agreement with the Phillies. The deal is worth $12 million over two seasons, with an option for the third year. Along with Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli, Ryan Dempster and Koji Uehara, Adams is the 5th Ranger free agent to sign with another club. So far the team has not come to terms with any of their free agents, and, looking at the contract breakdowns (sans the one-year, $4.25 million deal Uehara received from Boston), they all seem like overpays.

Josh Hamilton, Angels (5 years/$25 million)

Mike Napoli, Red Sox (3 years/$39 million*)

Ryan Dempster, Red Sox (2 years/$26.5 million)

Mike Adams, Phillies (2 years/$12 million)

– * Speaking of Mike Napoli, I saw on lonestarball last night that there’s a report out there saying Boston is looking to re-open negotiations with the free agent C/1B. It’s looking more and more like the Rangers front office knew something deleterious regarding Napoli’s health situation moving forward, which adds credence as to why they didn’t extend him the one-year, $13.3 million qualifying offer.

– Jamey Newberg has a lugubrious, albeit short, addendum-like article in regard to Josh Hamilton. He wrote a more comprehensive one before that. In the former, he concludes with:

He made $28.2 million in five years here.  He’ll make $125 million in five years there.  I’m not going to say those numbers will end up looking backwards in terms of the production he provides, but I’m sorta confident about which team will have gotten the better deal.

I won’t boo him when he comes to Arlington in April.

But I won’t stand up and cheer his return, either.

He’s just another Los Angeles Angel now.

Pretty much.

– Richard Durrett takes a look at Nick Swisher being a target he’d like to see the Rangers go after. And, to be real, Swisher would look excellent in this lineup.

– Lastly, ESPN’s Dallas radio station has a hilarious “Goodbye letter” to Josh Hamilton by Matt Mosely. I highly recommend checking it out. (Based off how many articles Durrett pumps out, you may have to scroll down a good bit.)

And just to cap off all news tangentially related to the Rangers, R.A. Dickey is apparently headed off to Toronto, contingent on he and the Jays reaching an agreement on a contract extension. It’s supposedly a 7-player deal between the Mets and Blue Jays, but the real head-scratcher for me is that Toronto is going to part ways with the top catching prospect in baseball, Travis d’Arnaud (pronounced DEE-AR-NO).

d’Arnaud, 23, ranked as the 5th-best prospect on Keith Law’s midseason top-50 last year (where he had Jurickson Profar #1). With catching being, talent-wise, the most scarce position in baseball, I’m trying to wrap my brain around the idea that the Blue Jays are willing to give up six years of that prized a commodity for a 38 year-old pitcher whom no one really knows what kind of transition he will make to the AL. I assume that’s the reason they are imploring Dickey to extend with them (likely for two years) to finalize the deal, but still, wow.