Texas Rangers release Wei-Chieh Huang

Relief pitcher Wei-Chieh Huang has been released, the Rangers announced today. The righthander was on a minor league deal and has been assigned to the Alternate Training Site.

Huang, 26, was acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks, along with Joshua Javier (as a player to be named later), at the trade deadline in 2018 for free-agent-to-be Jake Diekman. Huang was viewed as a potential multi-inning middle reliever whose out pitch, a change up, made him effective against lefties as well as righties.

Huang was added to the 40 man roster after 2018 and made four appearances in the majors for Texas in 2019. Huang was non-tendered in early December, removing him from the 40 man roster without having to run him through waivers, and then was re-signed to a minor league deal three days later.

No one was added, and it isn’t clear whether the team was simply ready to move on from Huang, or if he asked for his release because he has a better opportunity available with another team.