Rangers add C Snyder on minor league deal, Washington doesn't have starter pegged

The Texas Rangers are in a catching conundrum with very little time before the season opens to decide on a solution. And that's without worrying about the rotation, or the injuries to regulars all around the diamond.

Manager Ron Washington will have one more option to play backstop, as the team added Chris Snyder on a minor-league deal Tuesday. 

Snyder, 33, was released by the Nationals this week after going 5-for-14 with a home run and five RBIs in 12 games this spring.

But it shouldn't be this hard. When the Rangers signed J.P. Arencibia over the winter, the idea was that either he and everyday catcher Geovany Soto were interchangeable in case of injury to the other.

As it stands, Soto is lost for the first 10 weeks of the season after suffering a torn meniscus in his knee, but the Rangers aren't sold on Arencibia stepping into a starting role - at all. 

"I haven't decided yet. Right now I've got him and [Robinson] Chirinos," Washington said via Dallas News, when asked earlier this week about Arencibia starting in Soto's absence.

The club added Chirinos to the major league roster, and the 29-year-old has outplayed his counterpart for the better part of the schedule.

“I haven’t seen a whole lot of Arencibia at his best,” Washington said, addressing his defensive skill set.

The non-endorsement of the guy who should be able to step into an everyday role (after all, Arencibia was Toronto's everyday starter for three seasons) is concerning. As Evan Grant of the Dallas News writes: 

Washington’s tone is odd for him as he is usually a proponent of veterans. And though Arencibia is younger than Chirinos, he has 1,299 at-bats of major league experience to 83 for Chirinos.