Let's go.

A month ago, it would have been reasonable to assume that last night’s Futures Game between Rangers and Cubs prospects (Texas 5, Chicago 1) would be a great opportunity to get a great seat at Sloan Park and watch Keone Kela face off against Kris Bryant, but you can’t predict ball, even in Cactus and Grapefruit Month.

Last month it would have been no surprise that the left-handed relief conversation toward the end of camp would no longer include Martire Garcia (for now), but none of us would have expected the stretched narrative to include Carrollton’s own Sam Freeman (here and out of options), Colleyville’s own James Russell (just released by the Braves), Orioles southpaw Brian Matusz (whom Fox Sports columnist Ken Rosenthal reports Texas discussed before acquiring St. Louis’s Freeman for future considerations), and UT’s own Andrew McKirahan (the interesting Rule 5 pick whom Miami placed on waivers yesterday), with Michael Kirkman and Joe Beimel looking to be part of someone else’s narrative while Alex Claudio prepares for a trip to Arlington, and then Oakland.

The Cubs might have hoped at the end of the 2014 season that McKirahan would face Joey Gallo in last night’s Futures Game, but the Marlins thwarted that in the December 11 draft, and now 28 teams have the opportunity to inherit Miami’s Rule 5 rights on the 24-year-old lefty before Chicago can get the chance to buy him back for half the $50,000 draft fee.

Texas might have envisioned back in late November that Odubel Herrera would get the chance to hit against McKirahan in Mesa last night, but instead it looks like he’s going to hit against Clay Buchholz on April 6 in Citizens Bank Park, and now’s not the time to crank out a story wondering whether Texas regrets leaving Herrera off its 40-man roster and using its Rule 5 pick on Delino DeShields Jr. instead of another player, given what both second basemen-turned-center fielders can do defensively, and at the plate.

Gallo (heel) didn’t play in the game and neither did Bryant (Boras?), and it was Chi Chi Gonzalez, Jake Thompson, Andrew Faulkner, Luke Jackson, and Jerad Eickhoff who starred for Texas last night, as well as Lewis Brinson and Kellin Deglan, but so did C.J. Edwards for the Cubs, and that’s part of the game. Matt Garza didn’t work out here, but that’s over and done, and I’ll root for Edwards — not just because he’s an extraordinary story and a great kid but because there’s some benefit to Rangers prospects panning out for other clubs — and for Mike Olt, who will reportedly hold third base down in Chicago while Bryant serves out his two-week CBA sentence in Des Moines.

Buster Olney (ESPN) thinks Texas is baseball’s 23rd-best team and Jim Bowden (ESPN/XM) thinks Texas, “sooner than later” but at least by the July trade deadline, should move Adrian Beltre (to Washington) and Prince Fielder (to San Diego or Toronto) and Yovani Gallardo (to Boston) and Neftali Feliz and Shin-Soo Choo.

Whatever.

One scout tells Rosenthal he expects “a historical number of trades coming in the last week of spring training,” with another executive suggesting that any activity will involve “small and medium” deals, and I’m not sure what Mike Napoli would qualify as if, as Nick Cafardo (Boston Globe) suggests, Boston explores opportunities to move the 33-year-old’s $16 million contract for 2015.

Cafardo also thinks Texas should still be chasing Cole Hamels, and that the Phillies want Jorge Alfaro.

And I’d like Odubel Herrera back, but that’s not happening, either.

On July 24-26, Herrera could conceivably have a Phillies-Cubs series in which half his at-bats come against Edwards, Kyle Hendricks, Neil Ramirez, Pedro Strop, and Justin Grimm, all former teammates in Texas, and my guess is later that week the Rangers won’t be making another trade for Cubs pitching or for Cole Hamels, but you never know.

And sure, maybe Olney and Bowden are right and the Rangers will be sellers once again on July 31, and if so, maybe Feliz moves on and the Keone Kela Era gets underway — assuming it doesn’t happen well before that.

In the meantime, go ahead and bet against Fielder if you want. And if you want to believe there isn’t a new level around the corner for two of Elvis Andrus and Leonys Martin and Ryan Rua, be my guest.

Rougned.

I would have loved a seat at Monday night’s Futures Game in Mesa, but not as much as my seat, wherever it is, next Monday, as Adrian and Prince and Roogie and Banny line the chalk at O.co, while Yovani and Sonny finish getting loose, and maybe both Texas and Oakland will have players introduced who at the moment are with other clubs, if you believe this week could get as busy as Ken Rosenthal’s sources predict.

There’s a split-squad pair of Rangers games this afternoon, one against the big league Cubs and the other against the Diamondbacks, and the most exciting part of that for me is that, by day’s end, we won’t have to hear the words “split squad” for another 11 months.

Let’s go.