Things are happening.

Yu Darvish will pitch Friday for the Rangers against Tampa Bay and will likely do so in front of more scouts than usual. Another interested party, GM Jon Daniels, will be on hand and watching, too. That is, if he's not too engrossed in his phone. And the phone is starting to ping.

With the Rangers in a deep slump and the wild card now becoming a longer shot, the wheels of a potential Darvish trade are starting to creak. Yahoo's Jeff Passan reported early Friday that the Rangers have started to "gauge" interest in Darvish should they move in that direction. Also on Friday, MLB.com's Jon Morosi reported that the Chicago Cubs have inquired about Darvish's availability.

Both fall under the heading of "due diligence." Teams have been told the Rangers don't plan to make a decision on their direction until the start of the week, at the earliest, but the four-game sweep at Baltimore and a two-spot plunge in the wild card standings has them being pushed into the "sell" corner.

What the Rangers must ascertain over the next few days -- before Darvish's next scheduled start on July 26 -- is what his market is. And that may not be determined until Oakland's Sonny Gray moves -- if he does. Gray is more attractive than Darvish to most contenders because he's three years younger (he's nearly 28) and under control for two years after this season.

If forced to give up a strong package of prospects, teams would prefer something more than a rental player. Gray may be a slightly lesser pitcher than Darvish, but is still an upper-rotation starter. The extra control makes him more attractive.

If the Rangers are to extract the best package for Darvish, it behooves them to wait for Gray to be moved and then start getting aggressive with the teams left standing. And there will be teams left standing. The Cubs, New York Yankees, Milwaukee and Houston are all interested in starting pitching.

The Rangers likely wouldn't get a package similar to what the Yankees extracted from the Chicago Cubs for rental reliever Aroldis Chapman last July, but they might be able to get one top prospect and two lesser ones.

At the moment, the Rangers' position in regards to Darvish is best described thusly: On the real estate website Zillow.com, there is a category for homeowners to list their houses passively, with an unnamed "Make Me Sell" tag. That's the Rangers.

That could change at any point over the weekend. They have nine games remaining before the deadline. Losing even three games would guarantee they'd be a below .500 team at the deadline. The Rangers were five games below .500 when they got really serious with Philadelphia about Cole Hamels in 2015. The differences: The division title is not in play this time around and, perhaps, more significantly they aren't in position to make a major acquisition due to lack of inventory in the minor league system.

If the Rangers are going to avoid the trade route, they all but need a sweep at Tampa Bay. They can't do that without winning the first game, the one Darvish will start. In that regard, at least some of his fate is in his own hands.

Evan Grant - Dallas Morning News