Elephant Rumblings: Conflicting Reports, Extensions, and Irony Jerseys

Trade Rumors:

• Yu Darvish appears to be more available by the day, potentially taking another chunk out of the Sonny Gray market. The Cubs are reported to be interested in Darvish as a rental option.
• MLB Trade Rumors ranks Gray first on their most recent list of Top 60 Trade Deadline Candidates. Jed Lowrie and Yonder Alonso also make the top 10.
• One more Gray story: at 10:28 AM yesterday, Jon Morosi reported that talks between the Astros and A’s over Gray were “heating up.” At 6:25 PM, Jon Heyman reported it wasn’t clear that the Astros and A’s were even in serious talks. Make of that what you will.
• The Yankees are still considering adding a first baseman before the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline.

ICYMI:

• Susan Slusser reports the A’s front office has discussed multi-year extensions with Marcus Semien and Khris Davis.
• Curtis Pashelka of the East Bay Times wrote a nice feature on Paul Blackburn and his rise from Brentwood Preps to the A’s.
• From Joe Posnanski: He played where? Majors’ best ‘irony jerseys.’ Lots of past favorites make the list...but maybe not in the uniforms you remember watching them play in.
• If you’re tired of trade rumors and just want to watch baseball, Melissa Lockard procured a video of Bobby Wahl’s rehab appearance last night in Stockton.

Best of Twitter:

• The A’s haven’t discussed an extension with Yonder Alonso’s agent.

• Ryon Healy will be on MLB Network’s “MLB Central” today at 8 AM PDT.