Rangers reportedly telling teams Yu Darvish is not available

The Texas Rangers are coming off a sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays, and they are not yet ready to commit to being sellers with the MLB trade deadline only a week away.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported on Monday that the Rangers have been telling interested teams Yu Darvish is not available — at least for now.

The Texas #Rangers continue to tell teams that Yu Darvish is not available. At this time. Big week for #Rangers future.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) July 24, 2017

A lot can change in the next week, especially with how inconsistent the Rangers have been this year. Winning the AL West division is out of the picture as they trail the Houston Texans by 17 games, but Texas is just 2.5 games behind in the wild card. As long as they don’t lose their next six games before the deadline, the Rangers have no reason to declare themselves out of the playoff race.

Darvish, 30, is 6-8 this year with a 3.44 ERA. He has already drawn strong interest from contending teams, and he would likely be the most sought-after arm on the market if the Rangers choose to trade him.