Rangers acquire Will Venable from Padres

UPDATE (THURSDAY) -- RHP Jon Edwards is the second player who will head to San Diego in the deal, according to Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Edwards is currently on trade waivers but will join the Padres once he clears.

Edwards, 27, is on the Rangers' 40-man roster and has pitched six innings with the major-league club so far this season. The reliever has posted a stellar 1.42 ERA in 31.2 innings at Triple-A Round Rock this year, though he was not ranked as a top-30 prospect in the team's system before the season.

Edwards was originally drafted by the Cardinals in 2006 and is a converted outfielder who signed with Texas as a minor-league free agent in 2011.

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ORIGINAL (TUESDAY) -- The Rangers have acquired outfielder Will Venable from the Padres for catcher Marcus Greene and a player to be named later, according to a team announcement. To make room for Venable, the Rangers designated Michael Choice for assignment.

Venable is the first significant Padre to be traded this summer, after rumors swirled for all of July about the team potentially shopping Justin Upton, Craig Kimbrel, James Shields, Tyson Ross, Andrew Cashner and other veterans in advance of the non-waiver trade deadline. San Diego stood pat at the deadline due to a belief within the front office that the team was still in contention, but appears to be willing to move some pieces with less than two weeks to go before the waiver deadline on August 31.

Venable is the latest in a series of aggressive additions to a Rangers club that has added Cole Hamels, Josh Hamilton, Sam Dyson and Mike Napoli in trades this year. Venable joins Hamilton, Shin-Soo Choo and Delino DeShields in the team's outfield mix, and will provide the ability to play all three outfield additions for a team on the cusp of playoff contention.

Venable, 32, was most commonly linked to the Cubs before the trade deadline but will instead join Texas after spending the first eight seasons of his career with San Diego. The left-handed hitter has hit .258/.318/.378 with six homers in 98 games this season and is a lifetime .252 hitter with 81 home runs in 918 major-league games. He is a free-agent after the season.

Greene, 20, was the Rangers' sixteenth-rounder in the 2013 draft out of New Mexico Junior College and has played both catcher and outfield throughout his first three professional seasons. Greene has hit just .218/.365/.500 with five home runs in 25 games with Single-A Hickory this season, and does not rank on MLB.com's list of the top thirty prospects in the Rangers' system.

Because of Greene's struggles and lack of prospect ranking, it is expected that the other prospect going to San Diego in the deal is a significant one. The name is likely agreed upon by the clubs, though the player may not be eligible to be traded due to waiver trade rules.