With free agency looming for their Opening Day starter C.J. Wilson, the Rangers made a brief attempt to sign Wilson to an extension. But Wilson’s lack of an established track record as a starting pitcher made it impossible for either side to figure out his true value. So those talks are now on hold.

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Rangers ace C.J. Wilson joins the Ben & Skin Show just hours before his start in Detroit to tell us why the Rangers are having so much early success. Listen

If Wilson has a year anywhere near his first season as a starter (15-8, 3.35), he’d be the most attractive left-handed starter on the market. But in a perfect world, Wilson sounds like a guy whose clear first choice is to stay in Texas.

“I like pitching with this lineup,” Wilson told Rumblings. “And our defense is pretty good, so I like that, too. And that’s a factor for me, because I want to win. The winning thing is more important than anything else – and knowing I’m going to be in a good situation, because you have a choice. You have a choice of what you’re going to factor your decision on. And for me, the ultimate thing is, `Am I going to be a happy person?’ I played for a team that wasn’t winning for a long time, and now we’re winning. So it’s a lot easier to see a future here.”

Wilson reports he saw a recent quote from Roy Halladay (on ESPN.com, coincidentally enough) in which Halladay said, “To me, free agency was a chance to pick where you want to play, not a chance to see how much money you could get.” And Wilson wants it on the record that he agrees with those sentiments “100 percent.”

“Actually,” he laughed, “I agree with him, just unequivocally, 100 percent, on whatever he says, because he’s the best.”