Manny Ramirez signs a minor league deal with the Texas Rangers

It’s on like Donkey Kong. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports that The Rangers have signed Manny Ramirez to a minor league deal:

According to a major league source, the club has agreed to a deal with 41-year-old Manny Ramirez on a minor league deal. Ramirez, who recently left a Taiwanese team to give himself another shot at returning to the majors for the first time since 2011, will report to Triple-A Round Rock. Rangers club officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Ramirez raked in Taiwan, finishing his short stint there near the top of the league in batting average, homers, RBIs and walks. He was also a tremendous gate and television attraction. Ironically, interest in Manny Ramirez helped save baseball in Taiwan following a series of scandals in that country’s league.

But Taiwan is generally considered to be on-par with, maybe, single-A ball. In 2012 he struggled in Triple-A for the Athletics and then was released after 17 games. He has not played in the majors since a short, unsuccessful stint with the Rays in 2011 which ended with a drug suspension. His 2010 season was marred by another drug suspension. It’s kinda doubtful that he’s going to be a real contributor to a major league team, let alone a good one like the Rangers.

But now, the odds against him be damned, he has a chance to make it back to the bigs. And we all get to take the ride with Manny one more time.