ARLINGTON -- The Rangers avoided an arbitration hearing with first baseman Mitch Moreland almost at the last hour on Wednesday by agreeing on a $5.7 million contract for 2016. Moreland can become a free agent after the season.
The agreement came after midnight, hours before Moreland was supposed to have his arbitration hearing in Phoenix.
Moreland was asking for $6 million and the club had offered $4.675 million. The midpoint range was $5.338 million and the Rangers have now gone 16 straight offseasons without an arbitration hearing. The last one was in 2000 with Lee Stevens.