Rangers sign Carlos Gomez to fill their Shin-Soo Choo void

The Astros released outfielder Carlos Gomez on Friday, more than a week after designating him for assignment.As it turns out, Gomez won't have to leave the state to find his next team. The Rangers, originally connected to Gomez by Jon Heyman, have signed the outfielder to a minor-league deal and assigned him to Triple-A Round Rock, the team announced Saturday.

Here's what we wrote about his woes earlier in the month:

Gomez's poor play is owed to a confluence of factors. He's forever been a grip-and-rip hitter, yet this season he's making significantly less contact than usual. Whereas his whiff rates used to check in around 25 percent, he's missed on nearly 40 percent of his swings -- that's just not going to work, particularly not for someone who likes to expand the zone as often as he does. It doesn't help Gomez that he has a tendency to get too far underneath the ball, leading to a lot of pop-ups. As such, Gomez is making an easy out -- either via strike out or pop-out -- in far too many of his at-bats.

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