Texas Rangers release Zach McAllister

Texas Rangers transactions: Zach McAllister, a righthanded reliever who was signed to a one year, $1 million non-guaranteed contract as a free agent this past offseason, has been released, the team announced today.

Evan Grant had indicated a couple of days ago that McAllister wasn’t going to make the Opening Day roster, and that leaves three internal candidates — Kyle Bird, Adrian Sampson and Connor Sadzeck — for what are assumed to be two open bullpen spots, although the Rangers could opt to keep one more reliever and a center fielder, depending on Joey Gallo’s health.

As we talked about this weekend, the Rangers might — and one could go so far to say are likely to — add a relief pitcher or two to the Opening Day roster from a waiver claim or an acquisition from another team. I wouldn’t be surprised if none of Sampson, Bird and Sadzeck made the Opening Day roster, and two guys currently in another camp or currently on the waiver wire ended up here.