Rangers trade catcher Taylor Teagarden

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The Texas Rangers traded catcher Taylor Teagarden to the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday in exchange for minor league right-hander Randy Henry and a player to be named.

The move gives the Orioles a backup for catcher Matt Wieters. Teagarden was out of options and didn't really have a role on the Rangers for 2012 with Mike Napoli and Yorvit Torrealba at catcher.

"There were a couple of clubs that expressed interest in Teagarden," Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. "Rather than getting to the end of spring training and having limited options at that point, we wanted to make the best baseball deal we could. It gives Taylor a Major League opportunity he didn't have here, and we add a very interesting young pitcher to our mix in Randy Henry. Quality scouting by our guys to identify him."

Teagarden, who turns 28 later this month, played in just 14 games in 2011 for the Rangers, hitting .235 (8-for-34) with two doubles and two RBIs.

He was selected in the third round of the 2005 draft by the Rangers out of the University of Texas and was on the Opening Day roster each of the past two seasons.

The right-handed hitter made his big league debut in July 2008 after just 221 minor league games. He played in 60 games in 2009 and 28 in 2010. He has 350 at-bats in the big leagues and is hitting .220.

Henry, 21, was 4-3 with a 2.22 ERA in 52 2/3 innings at Class A in 2011. He finished the season in the South Atlantic League. He had 40 strikeouts and eight walks.

Richard Durrett covers the Rangers for ESPNDallas.com.

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Richard Durrett

ESPNDallas.com

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Richard Durrett joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009. He writes about colleges, the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers. Richard spent nine years at The Dallas Morning News covering the Rangers, Stars, colleges, motorsports and high schools.