TORONTO -- The Texas Rangers were never close to trading second baseman Alfonso Soriano before Sunday's deadline to make deals without waivers.
"The type of deals that were presented to us did not make sense," Texas general manager John Hart said. "We never got close. We countered on a lot of players, discussed a lot of possibilities, but we never got close to what we considered to be a deal that was going to help the Rangers."
The Minnesota Twins, New York Mets and Chicago Cubs were said to be interested in Soriano. Hart said his team aggressively pursued starting pitching but that the club was not willing to part with one of its upper-level players for a "two-month rental."
Hart, who added he thought it was a "dry market," also said he tried to reassure Soriano that the club was not attempting to trade him.
"We also told him it's baseball and who knows what's going to happen," Hart said. "I think he was affected more than anyone."
Soriano came to Texas from the New York Yankees in the Alex Rodriguez trade before the 2004 season. He's hitting .280 with 26 homers and 69 RBI for Texas, which fell to 53-51 after Sunday's 5-1 loss to Toronto.
"We're going to fight it out with what we got," Hart said. "We're going to provide opportunities to guys like C.J. Wilson."
Wilson took the loss Sunday in his fourth major-league start. The 24-year-old left hander allowed four runs and eight hits in six innings. The rotation also includes unproven pitchers like Ricardo Rodriguez and Joaquin Benoit.
Journeyman reliever John Wasdin replaced the traded Chan Ho Park on Friday. Texas acquired Phil Nevin from San Diego in a trade for Park that day.
"I don't think anyone looks at our club and says the Rangers are fully stocked up with pitching," Hart said.