By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Monday, Jon Morosi of FOX Sports reported that the Texas Rangers were interested in Philadelphia Phillies starter Vince Velasquez. Morosi noted at that that time that the price for the 23-year-old is 'obviously high,' which seems to suggest that it's unlikely that the Rangers' interest ever leads to serious discussions.
While a Velasquez trade seems unlikely, given his injury concerns, the Phillies would be silly to simply hang up if a contending team like the Rangers began to poke around on Velasquez. So perhaps they didn't.
On June 28, Ryan Lawrence of Philly Voice reported that the Phillies' top scout, Charley Kerfeld, was at the Rangers-New York Yankees matchup. At the time, it seemed rather curious that the Phillies top scout, and someone who also has a title of "special assistant to the general manager," was scouting a major league game just over a month before the league's non-waiver trade deadline.
It is important to note that since that day, Jim Bowden of ESPN reported that the Rangers had 'talked' with the Phillies about both closer Jeanmar Gomez and starter Jeremy Hellickson. They also at least had an on-paper fit for either Cameron Rupp or Carlos Ruiz. But who on the Rangers major league team would make sense as a return for any of the names mentioned? Even if the Phillies packaged Gomez and Hellickson together, they wouldn't get near Jurickson Profar. And while it's at least possible there was some small piece in the Rangers bullpen that the Phillies liked that is under team control, it seems strange to send the organization's top scout knowing that the Rangers probably wouldn't want to move anyone of value to the 2016 team considering they had the best record in the MLB at that time.
It isn't that far-fetched to think that the Rangers had made Phillies' brass — general manager Matt Klentak and president Andy MacPhail, specifically — aware of their interest in trading for Velasquez at that time. While the Phillies probably were less than interested in moving someone who had a 16 strikeout complete game just two months prior, multiple reports have suggested that they weren't particularly comfortable with Velasquez upon his trade physical this past off-season. So knowing the deep amount of talent in the Rangers organization quite well, perhaps the Phillies at least humored the Rangers' interest by scouting their major league team, as they looked for truly 'major league ready' talent that they would be interested in if talks happened to escalate.
Any potential trade talks would presumably have to start with the previously mentioned Profar, who with all due respect to Scott Kingery, would probably become either the team's long-term second baseman or push J.P. Crawford there.
So what does it all mean? Probably little. Velasquez is under team control through 2021, is currently 8-4 with a 3.34 ERA and is just 24. Out of anyone in the organization, Velasquez probably presents the best chance to be an ace as a starter or an elite closer. His health may always be a question, but the Phillies new that when they traded their 25-year-old closer for a package headlined by him last winter. The Rangers also made a smaller move earlier this week to acquire Lucas Harrell from the Atlanta Braves, which wouldn't prevent a bigger trade, but probably makes one less than likely.
It should also be noted that this is not a report that the Phillies were indeed scouting the Rangers with a potential Velasquez trade in mind, but rather connecting the dots. Maybe they were scouting the Rangers, or even the Yankees for that matter, for another purpose. It just seems difficult to figure out exactly what that purpose would have been.
