The Texas Rangers today announced that the club has acquired right-handed pitcher Eddie Gamboa from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations. The Rangers have also placed first baseman/designated hitter Prince Fielder and left-handed pitcher Jake Diekman on the 60-day disabled list.
 
Gamboa (pronounced gam-BOH-uh), 32, went 0-2 with a 1.35 ERA (2 ER/13.1 IP) over 7 relief appearances with the Rays in 2016, his first major league action. The right-hander spent the balance of the season at Triple-A Durham, going 6-4 with a 2.68 ERA (28 ER/94.0 IP) over 27 games/12 starts after signing with the Rays as a minor league free agent on January 19, 2016. He was designated for assignment today when the Rays formally signed right-handed pitcher Nathan Eovaldi.
 
Gamboa was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 21st round of the 2008 June draft and spent eight seasons in the Baltimore farm system. He was signed for the Orioles by current Rangers Special Assistant to the General Manager James Keller. The Merced, California native played collegiately at the University of California-Davis.
 
Fielder had a second surgery for a disc herniation in his neck on July 29, 2016 and has been declared medically disabled from a return to a baseball career. Diekman had surgery on January 25, 2017, the first of a series of scheduled procedures in which his colon would be removed to address the ulcerative colitis condition which he has managed since his youth.
 
With today's transactions, the Rangers now have 39 players on the club's 40-man roster.