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The Texas Rangers have signed Kyle Blanks to a minor league deal with a split contract, per Chris Cotillo on Twitter.
Blanks, 28, is a righthanded hitting COF/1B/DH who has a career .234/.319/.407 line in 862 major league plate appearances, most of them with San Diego. Oakland acquired Blanks last May for Ronald Herrera and Jake Goebbert, but Blanks then got hurt, and ended up getting only 56 plate appearances for the A's.
Blanks has mashed in the minors -- he has a career .303/.392/.517 line in the minor leagues, including a .301/.401/.568 line in 609 AAA plate appearances -- but has struggled to get that success to translate to the majors. Cotillo says Blanks has a good chance of making the major league roster, and you'd have to think that he has a good shot of sharing the starting DH job with Mitch Moreland.
Blanks doesn't offer much value defensively, but he can play first base and the corner outfield spots, which would give the Rangers some additional versatility. This is a nice little pickup, and gives the Rangers an additional righthanded power hitter to mix-and-match with in 2015.
