AL West

According to this tweet by Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish, five major league teams are reportedly interested in free-agent starting pitcher Jason Hammel:

It’s been a hectic past few months for Taijuan Walker.

It's just about three weeks before pitchers and catchers report for the MLB spring training and scouting reports and projections have been made.

According to this tweet by Anthony Andro of Fox Sports Southwest, the Texas Rangers' rotation took a huge blow Friday:

Texas Rangers might be weighing trade options with bringing in a starting pitcher for replacing Derek Holland who is out until midseason after he suffered a knee injury on Tuesday.

Sportswriter Anthony Andro of FoxSportsSouthwest.com reported the news via Twitter.

Updates from Saturday, Jan. 11

Richard Durrett of ESPN provides Derek Holland's description of what occurred:

There is only one spot left undecided in the Texas Rangers starting rotation for 2014.

It is presumably for the fourth or fifth spot. The team has three lefties in Derek Holland, Martin Perez and Matt Harrison, and Yu Darvish is the lone righty.

Just when you think there are no more moves for the Houston Astros to make, they find a way to prove you wrong. 

On Wednesday, I projected how the Texas Rangers' revamped offense would look in 2014. Today is the second installment in the projection series: the rotation. Bullpen projections, the final piece of the series, will be coming soon.

On the one hand, the moves made by Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane this winter seem out of character for a team that had a payroll of $61.9 million in 2013. The team has spent money to bring in an experienced closer in Jim Johnson and also signed free-agent starter Scott Kazmir.