According to John Harper of the Daily News, the Texas Rangers would trade top hitting prospect Mike Olt for R.A. Dickey, but only if they first lose out on free-agent Zack Greinke AND are unable to trade for James Shields who is their top preference if they have to make a swap.
Meanwhile the Royals and Blue Jays are not that interested in Dickey and and prefer the Mets young lefthander Jonathan Niese. They also have many other options they are considering.
Olt for Dickey makes more logic in terms of a swap than the Royals trading Wil Myers for Dickey. But is the Rangers power-hitting prospect the difference maker Alderson said it would take for him to move Dickey? I don’t think so.
Clearly Wil Myers is much more superior and polished prospect, but as more than three people have reported, any talks with the Mets are dead. They will not consider trading him for Dickey. They want Wheeler or Niese.
Olt, 24, spent some time on the 2012 Rangers roster, coming up at the start of August to be a regular starter and bench option, but got less and less playing time ultimately hitting only .152/.250/.182 in 33 plate appearances with 15 strikeouts.
He skipped Triple-A and was promoted directly from Double-A Frisco where he batted .288 with 28 home runs and 82 RBI in 421 plate appearances with 101 strikeouts.
He has no speed and unless the ball goes out of the park his extra base power doesn’t rise to the level of his home runs. In 871 at-bats he has 52 homers and 48 doubles, while grounding into 28 double plays and 253 strikeouts.
