ANAHEIM, Calif. – With less than 24 hours to go until the trade deadline and the Rangers dealing with little payroll flexibility and a thin farm system, they may have to get creative in order to add to the roster.

Consider last year’s trade of Michael Lorenzen to open up room for Andrew Chafin and Carson Kelly. The Rangers moved salary to add a bit of salary without adding a ton to an already over-the-CBT tax payroll.

Gray’s return to the roster last week was hailed for the flexibility it gave Bruce Bochy. But there’s one other way he could provide flexibility – by being traded to a team willing to absorb most or all of the approximately $3.9 million left in his contract.

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Here’s how something like that might look:

— Unless they change heart, which they would probably only do for a long-term controllable player, the Rangers have less than $1 million in payroll flexibility under the luxury tax.

–That’s simply not enough to get even a rental closer unless their trade partner is willing to absorb whatever cost overruns there might be. To do that, though, would likely require the Rangers to up their ante in terms of prospects. The Rangers, however, don’t have a ton of prospects capable of fronting a deal.

–A solution: Create more flexibility. If a team seeking a starter or multi-inning reliever would take Gray and the bulk of his deal, it would give the Rangers a lot more room, certainly enough to add either Pittsburgh’s David Bednar (approximately $1.8 million remaining, plus a year of control), Tampa Bay’s Pete Fairbanks (approximately $1.25 million remaining) or Washington’s Kyle Finnegan (approximately $1.7 million remaining).

–It might even leave enough extra money to add a secondary relief option or a complementary right-handed bat such as Minnesota’s Harrison Bader (approximately $1.9 million remaining).

On paper, it looks so easy. But in addition to finding willing trade partners, which is hard enough, it would probably require three separate trades with financial negotiations and an accountant to tabulate the potential tax burden to the penny.

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