White Sox made strong play for Greinke

Among the runners-up in the Zack Greinke sweepstakes were the Rangers, who presented a package of players that was “very tough to walk away from,” Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said. A club official suggested that the deal-breaker was not Texas’ unwillingness to include infielder Mike Olt, who was deemed off-limits in a Greinke swap, but left-hander Martin Perez.

The Braves may have fallen out on Greinke because the Brewers were unwilling to cover any of the $4.5-$5 million owed Greinke over the final two months of the regular season. Melvin also had one 11th-hour discussion with Nationals GM Mike Rizzo, partly because Rizzo was in town for a four-game series and partly because Washington plans to shut down right-hander Stephen Strasburg at some point to protect his surgically-repaired arm. And White Sox general manager Kenny Williams made a very strong play for Greinke.

“Kenny worked really hard at it,” Melvin said. “I probably received as many texts from him [as anyone else]. It just wasn’t a match.”

Williams tried to involve a third team.

“That gets complicated on that big a deal,” Melvin said.

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