Arlington, Texas — The Texas Rangers announced prior to Wednesday’s game that the club has signed free agent catcher Kevin Plawecki (#23, pronounced pluh-WECK-ee) to a Major League contract.  Plawecki has reported to the club and will be on the active 28-man roster for tonight’s game against the Los Angeles Angels.

To make room for Plawecki on both the 40-man Major League roster and the 28-man active roster, the club has placed infielder/outfielder Nick Solak on the 60-day Injured List with a right foot fracture.

Plawecki, 31, batted .217 with one home run and 12 RBI over 60 games for the Boston Red Sox this season.  He was designated for assignment by Boston on Saturday (Sept. 17), released from the roster on Monday (Sept. 19), and formally given his unconditional release earlier today.  The eight-year Major League veteran has appeared in 444 MLB games with New York-NL (2015-18), Cleveland (2019), and Boston (2020-22).  The Purdue University product was originally selected by the Mets in the first round (35th overall) of the 2012 MLB Draft.

Solak suffered the foot fracture when he was hit by a pitch during his last game with the Rangers on September 14 vs. Oakland.  He batted .207 with 3 home runs and 4 RBI in 35 games over three stints with Texas this season: Opening Day-May 18, July 17-August 4, September 1-current.  He has spent the balance of the campaign at Round Rock, slashing .278/.371/.489/.860 (62-223) with 10 home runs and 45 RBI over 57 games

Following today’s transactions, the Rangers currently have 28 active players along with 40 players on the Major League roster and five players (Mitch Garver, Brad Miler, Josh Sborz, Nick Solak, Eli White) on the 60-day Injured List.