1) Rangers sign Joaquin Benoit: The deal is a one year deal worth $1.05 Million. It’s quite interesting to see how he’s worked himself into a good bullpen job. It wasn’t long ago that quite a lot of Ranger fans (myself included) just wanted to run him out of town, but he’s managed to stick around, and if I’m not mistaken, he holds the current active record for continuous service as a Ranger. As long as the Rangers don’t do something stupid like try and put him back in the rotation this is probably a good move. This technically avoids arbitration with Jack, although we still have three candidates for that (Otsuka, Wilkerson, & Bauer).
2) Minor League Invites: Thomas Diamond was invited back to 2007 major league camp, along with Eric Hurley, Kevin Richardson (C), & Nate Gold (1B). Diamond has been here before, the others haven’t. I don’t think any of these guys will actually break camp with the Rangers unless they have an incredibly good spring. The other NRI’s are: RHPs Willie Eyre, Franklyn German and Mike Wood; LHP Scott Rice; C Salomon Manriquez; INF Ramon Vazquez; and INF/OFs Jerry Hairston Jr. and Matt Kata. Of that group, I’d say Hairston probably has the best shot to make the club.
3) Drew Meyer DFA’ed: Drew Meyer was designated for assignment to make room on the roster for catching prospect Chris Stewart who we got from the White Sox for Johnny Lujan. I admit to not knowing much about either, although I saw a few decent summaries of them at other Ranger sites (like this one). Meyer though was the guy that raised a lot of eyebrows when he was drafted #1 by Grady Fuson a few years back. I always hoped he’d make the majors for a completely selfish reason – I won an autographed ball of his as a door prize at a Newberg Report event I think two years ago. :)
4) Samuel Peralta Sosa: The Rangers had Sammy Sosa in for a “kick the tires” session. You know, work out in the indoor cages, talk with Ron Washington & Rudy Jaramillo. Dinner with the owner, that kind of stuff. There’s always been the talk that we need a righthand hitter (Jason Botts) who could also play some DH (Jason Botts), so we’re bringing in Sammy for a look. We all know he started his career with us. Never quite thought he’d end it here. Now I don’t think he’s signed or anything like that, but the articles I read today about it seem to imply we’re seriously thinking about it. So long as we sign him to a minor league incentive deal, I’m OK with taking a look in spring – no way does he deserve guaranteed money.
5) Speaking of old school Rangers, it appears that the Mets are trying to have a Julio Franco & Ruben Sierra reunion – they’re talking about signing Sierra to a minor league deal. Franco will be going into the second year of a two year deal he got in Dec 2005.