Albert Belle, Still Available

It's official, folks, if you can handle it: Sammy Sosa and the Texas Rangers have agreed on a deal. Sosa will receive $500,000 on a one-year contract and will be invited to make the team out of Spring Training. It's good to see that the new Rangers manager Ron Washington is attempting to be realistic about the signing.

"I'd love to have him hit fifth behind Mark Teixeira if he shows he can hit Major League pitching," manager Ron Washington said. "As we get into Spring Training, his performance will show what we can do with him.

We suspect the Rangers' AL West rivals would also like to see Sosa hitting fifth behind Mark Teixeira. By the way ... steroids are still illegal, right? Just checking; we wanted to make sure to have all the facts.

Rangers, Sosa Agree To Deal [Rangers.com]