Breaking down the Rangers' best trade options on day of trade deadline

It was a busy Wednesday, specifically the latter half of the day, as trades went flying around Major League Baseball and names slowly put surely got taken off the board one at a time.

However, to a lot of Texas Rangers' fans frustrations, none of those trades involved their team but did involve three of their closest divison rivals. The Angels grabbed Andrew Chafin and Luis Garcia from Washington, Houston acquired infielder Ramon Urias from Baltimore and Seattle hit the jackpot with 35 homer third baseman Eugenio Suarez from the D-backs. And it doesn't seem like those three might be done.

Texas needs to make a splash and they are running out of time to do so with the trade deadline set for Thursday at 5 p.m. CT.

What are the Rangers' realistic options at the positions they need to upgrade?

The first plan of attack is the bullpen help, more specifically the setup or closer role. Unfortunately, some of the top names are now off the table. Ryan Helsley is going to Queens, Jhoan Duran to Philly and Steven Matz to Boston.

This leaves Texas with Pete Fairbanks and David Bednar as their top options and both of those will drive a hard bargain. Pittsburgh wants at least a top 5 prospect in return and I'd imagine Tampa Bay would want something good as well, given they are still in AL playoff contention.

Other relief arms might include a plethora of Colorado arms like Dallas Morning News' Evan Grant reported earlier this week. They could also still take a flier on Felix Bautista depsite the recent injury but would that be worth it?

There is good news though. The slugger market still looks in tact for Texas as two of their top likely trade candidates, Marcell Ozuna and Ryan O'Hearn, are still available for the taking.

Next biggest issue would be solving the Rangers' payroll issue. Owner Ray Davis is pretty determined to stay under the luxury tax threshold and will take some hard convincing to take on extra salary. President of Baseball Operations Chris Young could convince him but it would also help if Young found a way to dump a bit of salary in other areas.

Regardless, all these options are leaving Texas with very little time to actually make a deal and improve their weaknesses. If not, it will not only leave fans dumbfounded but sort of give off the vibe that they are mailing the final two months in.