Texas gives Alfonseca Minors deal

DALLAS -- The Rangers announced Friday that they agreed to a Minor League deal with reliever Antonio Alfonseca, who has 121 career saves. The move is pending a physical. Texas also avoided arbitration hearings with outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. and pitcher Vicente Padilla by agreeing on one-year contracts.

Padilla agreed to a $4.4 million salary while Matthews agreed to $2.4 million.

"I'm excited, I can't wait to get going," Matthews said before the Rangers mid-winter banquet at a Dallas restaurant.

The moves, coming on the eve of the Rangers annual FanFest at Ameriquest Field in Arlington on Saturday, seemed to symbolize that the offseason is just about at an end.

Friday's banquet honored top performances from 2005 but most people wanted to talk about the upcoming season after what is being perceived as a productive winter for the Rangers.

"We can't wait until April 3," club president Jeff Cogen told a crowd of approximately 300 guests.

Pitcher Thomas Diamond, honored as the Minor League Pitcher of the Year, is from the New Orleans area. John Lombardo, director minor league operations, pointed out that Diamond went back to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina instead of accepting a promotion to Triple-A Oklahoma.

"While others were fleeing, he went back into the fire," Lombardo said.

The Rangers open the season on April 3 against the Boston Red Sox and that's when they'll start getting a real idea of just how successful they were in the offseason.

But they were certainly busy in acquiring pitchers Kevin Millwood, Adam Eaton, Padilla and Akinori Otsuka, and outfielder Brad Wilkerson.

"This is as excited as I've ever been," All-Star shortstop Michael Young said. "This is my sixth year on the team and I have never felt such great vibrations from the players, organization and the fans. We have way too much talent as players to let this go to waste."

Said outfielder David Dellucci, "We have an extremely strong offense that's going to put up big numbers but now we've signed some pitchers who not only have good stuff but can eat up a lot of innings.

"Kevin Millwood, Adam Eaton, Vicente Padilla, those guys get out there and get after it. It's going to be exciting, a jump-start to where this organization is heading."

General manager Jon Daniels acknowledged that the Rangers don't have a perfect team and that the A's and the Angels were still the favorites in the division.

"It's not going to be easy," Daniels said. "But don't count us out."

Young and Dellucci were the stars of the show. Young was honored as the Rangers Most Valuable Player and American League batting champion.

Dellucci was given the Harold McKinney Good Guy Award and the Jim Sundberg Community Achievement Award for his work in helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Dellucci is a native of Baton Rouge and his Catch-22 for Blue Foundation has raised over $80,000. He was also active during the holidays in distributing food and toys to those impacted by the hurricane.

"I'm just a front and a name for this charity," Dellucci said. "The reason we're doing so well is because of the generosity of the fans. I'm proud to be from Louisiana and proud of the people. I love the state, the culture and the people and it makes me more proud once you get behind the scenes and see what's going on."

Chris Young was honored as the Rangers Rookie of the Year and Kenny Rogers was honored as Pitcher of the Year.

Neither attended, having moved on to other teams.