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The Rangers signed former White Sox catcher Sandy Alomar Jr to a 1 year contract today, and added him to the 40 man roster. I can’t say I’m terribly excited about this one. He’ll obviously be our backup. I would have rather us gone with Barajas / Laird as the major league catching combo. I have nothing personally against Alomar, it’s just I don’t know if bringing in a catcher at the back end of his career to be the backup is a great idea (unless Pudge wants to return at the tail end of his).

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The final list of arbitration players was posted last night. We offered arbitration to David Dellucci, and declined arbitration to these players: Rusty Greer, Jeff Zimmerman, Eric Young, Brian Jordan, Brad Fullmer, Jeff Nelson, Jay Powell, & Andy Fox. I also have what I believe to be a complete list of former Rangers who were and were not offered arbitration on my forums here.

Today is arbitration day. When the formal announcement is made, I’ll update again, but I’ve made changes to the roster page on some of the obvious players that are not coming back.

There was a disturbing headline in today’s DMN entitled “Greer Finished as a Ranger“. That’s really depressing. I think we all knew it was coming, but to see it in print is really sad. I hope he says “I’m done”, and takes the front office job, although I still think he’ll make a great hitting coach to someone. Hope Omar Minaya in New York doesn’t figure that out.

The Rangers have released their Spring Training Schedule for 2005, and I’ve updated my schedule pages with that information. Highlights include 12 radio games and 3 (maybe more) TV games (although the TV games haven’t been announced yet).

The best off season move we could make was made yesterday. Rudy Jaramillo was signed to a three year contract as hitting coach. Additionally, all of our other coaches will be back for 2005.
There’s an article over at the Dallas Morning News website about this.
This is a long overdue move. While I didn’t like the uncertainty, I don’t begrudge him the opportunity he had to interview for the Mets’ GM position. Likewise, if another GM post comes up before his contract is over, I’ll be sad that he left, but I wouldn’t mind it for that reason. Now, if he went somewhere else to be a hitting coach, that I’d have a problem with.