Per the Rangers beat reporters on Twitter, the Rangers have released righthanded reliever Yoshinori Tateyama.

The Rangers had signed Tateyama to a minor league deal over the offseason, but had assigned him to the minor league camp earlier this week.

Texas is giving him an opportunity to try to catch on with another team where he could stick in a major league bullpen.

Tateyama signed with the Rangers in November, 2010, and split the 2011 and 2012 seasons between the majors and the minors, posting a 5.75 ERA while in the majors. A sidearmer, Tateyama seemed like he would be best utilized in a specialist role, but Ron Washington seemed to use him more often as a long man or in garbage time. Tateyama allowed major league righthanders to put up a .200/.234/.274 line against him, but allowed a .272/.353/.641 line against lefties.

A team that uses him as a specialist against righthanded hitters could get some value from him.