Texas Rangers acquire pitcher for international slot money

The Texas Rangers have acquired 20 year old righthanded pitcher Kelvin Gonzalez from the Kansas City Royals for international slot bonus pool money, the Rangers announced today.

This is a bit of a man bites dog story, since the Rangers have generally been active in acquiring international slot money since pool allocations have been able to be traded, rather than dealing it away. The Rangers were active during this summer’s J-2 signing period, though the initial calculations indicated that they had not used all of their available pool funds.

Presumably, the Rangers figure that Gonzalez is a better investment than whomever they could sign with the funds available that they dealt away. Listed at 6’, 170 lbs., Gonzalez pitched in the Dominican Summer League in 2016 and part of 2017, in the AZL in 2017, and in the Appalachian League this year, with an overall 3.72 ERA in 77.2 IP.

The Rangers and Royals share the training complex at Surprise, and so one can assume they’ve seen a fair amount of him over the past year. He has been assigned to the Rangers’ AZL team.