By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly Staff 
As the August 1 non-waiver trade deadline looms for teams around Major League Baseball, the Phillies have had their phones ringing constantly for players such as Jeremy Hellickson and Jeanmar Gomez.
However, as time passes, Vince Velasquez has popped up on the radar of one team in particular: the Texas Rangers.
According to a tweet by FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal, the "Rangers are 'all over' Vince Velasquez." The notion that Velasquez could possibly become a Ranger has been spreading the past couple days, but it all sounded like an unlikely rumor. How could the Phillies pass up on a future ace in their young rotation?
Sources: #Rangers “all over” #Phillies’ Velasquez, scouting him and doing extensive background work. Deal unlikely, however.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 29, 2016
In Sports Talk Philly writer Brandon Apter's article on Monday, he mentioned that preliminary remarks by the Rangers were made about their interest in the 24-year-old pitcher, but the price would obviously be high from the Phillies standpoint.
When the Phillies told the Marlins that in order for them to trade for Hellickson, Miami would have to offer up a top-five prospect in their organization. It's almost certain that they would ask the same of Texas, adding the fact that Velasquez is obviously a much bigger asset to the future of the team.
Further noted, the Phillies sent a scout to the Rangers-Yankees matchup on June 28 to look at possible players on the Texas side, as stated in Tim Kelly's article Thursday night.
While this sounded like they would be looking at prospects in exchange for Hellickson and Gomez, it almost makes people wonder if the Phillies would be keeping prospects such as Joey Gallo, Lewis Brinson, Nomar Mazara, and even second-baseman Jurickson Profar in mind if they were asked about Velasquez.
According to Rosenthal, a deal seems unlikely at current time, but if the price is right, and the Rangers do in fact continue to research Velasquez, a possible trade during the waiver period after the deadline might not be out of the question.
Time will tell, but it already seems like the Phillies will have their work cut out for them over the next three days.
