Think back to last season and the revolving door that was the Texas Rangers' roster throughout their train wreck of an injury-plagued season, and try to remember the catching situation.
Remember, the Rangers were set to the start the season with Geovany Soto and J.P. Arencibia on the roster as catchers. Soto was hurt, and Arencibia was the Opening Day starter behind the plate before that experiment ran dry in a hurry and gave way to Robinson Chirinos.
Of course, Chirinos went on to be one of the bigger pleasant surprises for the Rangers, shining behind the plate as a still relatively new catcher despite his advanced age for this stage in his career. But behind him for much of the season was Chris Gimenez.
The veteran catcher was dealt to Cleveland late in the season, but he was brought back on Thursday when the Rangers signed him to a minor-league deal. It's assumed he'll fight for the backup catcher spot behind Chirinos with guys like Russell Martin off the market.
There's also one interesting tidbit about Gimenez, and that's that he was Yu Darvish's "personal catcher" to some extent and obviously built a strong relationship with him. Gimenez caught 12 of Darvish's 22 starts, and saw some great results from the Rangers' ace, including two complete games (three if you count a rain-shortened seven-inning affair against the Yankees).
Gimenez hit .241 and showed a little pop with 10 home runs in his limited action and very well could be in the Rangers' plans as a backup option to Chirinos.
