Texas Rangers Off-Season

Evan Grant of DMN had this today.

The Rangers are taking a proactive approach to their pursuit of free agent center fielder Torii Hunter.

And they wouldn't mind reconciling with Kenny Rogers, either.

A club source confirmed that team officials dined with Hunter and his representative, Larry Reynolds, on Monday. Hunter, who lives in Prosper, met with the Chicago White Sox on Sunday. Neither Hunter nor Reynolds could be reached for comment Tuesday.

Tuesday was the first day that teams could start talking about the financial parameters of deals with free agents. General manager Jon Daniels declined to discuss the state of talks with Hunter but did acknowledge the team might have interest in bringing Rogers back for a fourth stint.

"Under the right circumstances, I'm open to it," Daniels said.

ALSO:The Rangers released the rest of their 2008 schedule Tuesday. They released the home schedule a month ago.

The Rangers will open at Seattle (March 31-April 2) and Los Angeles (April 4-6). The home opener is April 8 vs. Baltimore. The interleague schedule includes trips to Washington, New York and Houston. Home interleague opponents are Houston (May 16-18), Atlanta (June 17-19) and Philadelphia (June 27-29). It will be the Phillies' first trip to Arlington.

The biggest tweak to the schedule is the elimination of 7:35 p.m. starts. The club had experimented with later start times last summer in an effort to increase attendance. The club saw no real positive impact from the change, and several surveys of fans suggested they preferred the 7:05 start time.

The Rangers will play 15 home day games in 2008, a reduction by one from the 2007 schedule.