This story has been updated since it was originally published.

The most significant moment of the World Series for the Rangers took place Monday in Boston, which is interesting considering there was no game played Monday and the Red Sox are not participants this year.

On Monday, exactly one year after clinching their fourth world championship of this century, the Red Sox introduced Chaim Bloom as their new president of baseball operations. He is charged with creating a more “sustainable” championship-caliber roster than did his predecessor, Dave Dombrowski.

“Sustainable,” is the new baseball parlance for “affordable.” Boston has led the majors in payroll the last two years and paid a luxury tax because of it each year, which is just fine when you are hosting a championship parade, but something else entirely when you miss the playoffs altogether as the Red Sox did in 2019. For the Red Sox, it means possibly shedding some payroll; for the Rangers, it may mean opportunity. In short, the Red Sox have a lot of well-compensated elite starting pitching and the Rangers could use another of those types. Namely David Price, Chris Sale or tantalizing, but oft-injured Nathan Eovaldi.

If there is a road map for the Rangers to follow this offseason it starts with Jon Daniels making a call to Bloom.

The Rangers will have some money to spend this winter and plenty of needs to fill. Conventional wisdom says they could make either Houston ace Gerrit Cole or Washington third baseman Anthony Rendon their top priority. Here’s the problem: Either one is likely to cost more than $30 million a year, which might just eat up the entirety of the Rangers’ payroll flexibility without addressing multiple other needs. Either would also likely cost them a draft pick as compensation since both are liable to get qualifying offers from their current teams. That is called paying retail.

Nobody pays retail when they don’t have to.

Before we go further, here is the part where we offer our disclaimer that this is hot stove speculation and, therefore, brimming with wildly buoyant outcomes. Making real trades, particularly ones involving big contracts, is like, real life, far more complicated. But, according to two sources, the Rangers have had internal discussions about the possibilities Boston could present. Daniels did not comment on the Red Sox situation Tuesday, but he never talks about other clubs.

The New York Post’s Joel Sherman on Monday suggested the Rangers and Red Sox could be a match based on the Red Sox possible need to trim payroll combined with the Rangers’ needs going into a new stadium and faced with an uphill climb in the AL West. Essentially, Sherman wrote, the Red Sox and Rangers might match up in an exchange of big contracts.

Everything starts with the decision Boston’s J.D. Martinez must make within five days of the end of the World Series. Martinez can exercise an opt-out in his contract; the expectation being that he will do so rather than take $23.75 million for next year. If he chooses the opt out, the Red Sox save some money (though probably not quite enough), but they will have a hole at DH. If he chooses to stay in Boston, the need to trim payroll becomes greater.

Boston, meanwhile, has $96 million committed to Price over the next three years, $51 million to Eovaldi for the same time, and, based on contract options, they could be into Sale for another $145 million over six years. Who wouldn’t want any of those guys when they are healthy? The issue is they’ve each missed significant time over the last two years due to injury issues. But, then again, if they had been healthy, Boston probably makes the playoffs again and we aren’t having this conversation.

The Rangers, on the other hand, have $21 million committed to DH Shin-Soo Choo for 2020 and $37 million committed to second baseman Rougned Odor for three years. With Dustin Pedroia’s future very much in the air, Boston might have need for a second baseman, too. Of course, Choo would have to approve any trade since he’s got complete no-trade protection. See, it gets complicated. And we haven’t even brought any other possible trade partners into the mix.

The concept, though, of some combination of contract and money is intriguing to investigate. If nothing else, it’s a conversation starter worth exploring between now and the GM meetings, which take place Nov. 11-14 in Scottsdale, Ariz., and, maybe, if it gets legs, longer than that.

The time is now for the Rangers to have conversations. It only makes sense for Daniels to start his to-do list with a phone call to Boston.

Correction, 11:10 a.m. Wednesday: An earlier version of this article state that the Rangers have $37 committed to Rougned Odor for three years. It’s much more. The correct amount is $37 million.