Catches.

It was around kickoff last night, minutes after I was treated to highlights and breakdown of Odell Beckham Jr.’s pregame routine (which was pretty cool), that my Twitter timeline got perforated by a smattering of posts that the Rangers, and not the Twins, had won the blind posting bid for 26-year-old Korean lefthander Hyeon-jong Yang, apparently for the modest baseball sum of $1.5 million.

Assuming the reports are true, there’s a process to wait out, as Yang’s club, the Kia Tigers, has to decide in the next few days whether to accept the bid. It’s probably less than the Tigers, who posted the southpaw last week, were hoping for (less, for instance, than the $2 million SK Wyverns accepted from the Padres Thursday for posted lefthander Kwang-hyun Kim). Kia might decide not to turn Yang loose, coming off the Dongwon Choi Award (Korea’s equivalent of the Cy Young) that he won two weeks ago, but maybe there’s a backstory there that makes a separation between Yang and the Tigers a foregone conclusion.

Mark Feinsand (New York Daily News) suggests Yang “projects as a number three starter in the majors with number two potential,” featuring a 92-95 mph fastball among four pitches, but other things I’ve read are less optimistic, viewing him as a back-of-the-rotation type. Not that you dismiss opportunities to add to the back of the rotation, if the cost makes sense.

Yang went 16-8, 4.25 in 28 starts this season (the league ERA was 5.23, and the average hitter put up an .808 OPS), allowing 158 hits and 72 unintentional walks in 165 innings while setting 157 down on strikes, the best strikeout rate he’d posted since his age-19 rookie season in the KBO.

If the Tigers accept the bid, and if the Rangers come to terms with Yang during the 30-day negotiation window, and if he comes to camp and shows his best, where does he fit and what does it mean for the staff as a whole?

If Colby Lewis returns, as expected, you’ve got Yu Darvish and Derek Holland, and then Lewis and Yang, and one spot for Nick Tepesch and Nick Martinez and Lisalverto Bonilla and Chi Chi Gonzalez and Luke Jackson and Jerad Eickhoff and maybe another non-roster invite or two to compete for, perhaps only holding a spot down until Martin Perez is ready in July (which admittedly assumes a whole lot about Perez and about the rest of the rotation), right?

Wrong.

The Rangers are still going to go get a more established mid-rotation starter, probably via trade.

And maybe signing Yang — which, again, is not a lock — helps free up one of Tepesch and Martinez and Bonilla and Gonzalez and Jackson and Eickhoff (probably not Gonzalez) to facilitate that trade, at least conceptually. Ken Rosenthal (Fox Sports) tweeted yesterday that the Rangers are believed to be “open to trading better prospects in lieu of spending big on free agents,” with “Gallo [and] Alfaro believed [to be] untouchable, but others in play.” Rosenthal identifies Braves outfielder Justin Upton as a target but says “[p]itching is [the] more current focus.”

Adding Yang, if the Rangers do, isn’t the same as signing Jon Lester or Max Scherzer or James Shields, and isn’t like trading for Jordan Zimmermann or Cole Hamels or Mat Latos. Bringing him aboard wouldn’t cost a premium draft pick or three high-end prospects or a nine-figure commitment, or even eight. And it wouldn’t be nearly the risk that a massive free agent investment would be.

It would be added depth, and added flexibility. And maybe — maybe — an added weapon for the starting five.

Though not as big a deal as whatever other starter the club acquires this winter.

Yang won’t be the biggest catch of the Rangers’ off-season. But that’s OK. As the New York Football Giants learned last night, the greatest catch doesn’t always mean a win.