Oh no? Rangers' deal with reliever in jeopardy

The Texas Rangers might not have a candidate to be their closer coming to camp after all.

General manager Jon Daniels indicated Thursday that the team has hit a snag in completing a one-year deal with free-agent reliever Seung-Hwan Oh. Daniels didn't provide any reason for the hold-up.

But when asked if a deal was imminent, he said no.

"We have nothing close to being ready to announce," Daniels said.

The deal, worth $2.75 million with a $4.5 option for 2019, was pending a physical, and that could be the issue.

Oh, a right-hander with 396 career saves in Korea, Japan and St. Louis, is working out in the Phoenix area with the LG Twins of the Korean Baseball Organization. He told Korean reporters earlier this week that his arm feels fine.

Manager Jeff Banister said that he hopes to be able to name a closer by the team spring training ends March 24. Alex Claudio is the incumbent, and fellow left-hander Jake Diekman and righty Keone Kela are also internal candidates.

"We have a number of guys who have closed games," Banister said. "We have a guy who did a good job for us last year."

This story was originally published February 15, 2018 at 1:31 PM with the headline "Oh no? Rangers' deal with reliever in jeopardy."