The Astros released outfielder Carlos Gomez on Friday, more than a week after designating him for assignment.

As it turns out, Gomez won't have to leave the state to find his next team. The Rangers, originally connected to Gomez by Jon Heyman, have signed the outfielder to a minor-league deal and assigned him to Triple-A Round Rock, the team announced Saturday.

Heyman adds that Gomez will need a few games to get ready before joining the Rangers roster.

With Shin-Soo Choo's season endangered by a fractured forearm, adding another outfielder makes sense for the Rangers. Ian Desmond has played well and Nomar Mazara is holding his own as a rookie, but left field has been left to a Delino DeShields, Jurickson Profar, and Ryan Rua triangle. Cumulatively, those three haven't gotten the result the Rangers would like to see.

Gomez, obviously enough, didn't perform well during his time in Houston. But he is a 30-year-old who received MVP votes in two of the past three seasons. Signing with what might be the AL's best squad should, in theory, help rejuvenate him.

Here's what we wrote about his woes earlier in the month:

Gomez's poor play is owed to a confluence of factors. He's forever been a grip-and-rip hitter, yet this season he's making significantly less contact than usual. Whereas his whiff rates used to check in around 25 percent, he's missed on nearly 40 percent of his swings -- that's just not going to work, particularly not for someone who likes to expand the zone as often as he does. It doesn't help Gomez that he has a tendency to get too far underneath the ball, leading to a lot of pop-ups. As such, Gomez is making an easy out -- either via strike out or pop-out -- in far too many of his at-bats.

Gomez's year probably won't be saved by changing uniforms. Nonetheless, it's worth the Rangers' time to find out for certain.