Thank goodness for the Rangers and the Reds. I thought I wasn’t going to have anything to talk about today.

In case you missed it, Texas sent outfielder Ruben Mateo and minor-league infielder Edwin Encarnacion to Cincy for right-hander Rob Bell.

Mateo is 23 years old and has career .265/.316/.418 numbers in just under 500 big-league plate appearances. Bell is 24 and has a 5.12 ERA in just under 200 big-league innings. He’s also incredibly prone to the gopher ball, averaging two per nine innings for his brief career.

Encarnacion plays third base and was hitting .306/.355/.453 at Savannah in the SAL. With Hank Blalock, David Lamb, and now Mark Teixeira ahead of him, this is probably a good move for Encarnacion’s career.

I know the Rangers are desperate for pitching but wow. Anyway, the first place I headed was Jamey Newberg’s site, which is the best source for information on the Rangers. He mentions the deal and says there will be more about it in tomorrow’s update. I’m interested to hear his take.

I’ll need to think this over some more but my gut reaction — no offense to Bell, who is a decent young pitcher — is that the Rangers didn’t get enough for Mateo.