Kenny Lofton is the perfect mercenary. He’s been with a million different teams, and has 84 games of playoff experience. Even at age 40, he provides an OBP spark atop the lineup. He makes $6MM this year for the Rangers, so there’s about $2.6MM left on his contract. He gets another $100K if he’s traded.
According to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, Lofton has "drawn significant interest from Cleveland and Milwaukee." Other teams are checking him out as well. It’d be fun to see Lofton back with the Tribe, the team he’s best known for. He actually came up as an Astro though.
As a Cubs fan I’d welcome Lofton back to Chicago. After abandoning the Alfonso Soriano experiment, the Cubs have employed Angel Pagan, Jacque Jones, and Felix Pie in center. None have hit particularly well. I would’ve signed Lofton this winter, working Pie in carefully.
Grant’s column also mentions Sammy Sosa, who is drawing a little bit of interest. With his OBP down to .294, Sosa is being sold as a lefty-masher instead of a regular. Grant believes the Twins and Yankees might find him useful.
