AL West Notes: Rangers, Abreu, Gonzalez

Gabe Kapler and Ivan Rodriguez each hit two homers April 3, 2000 as the Rangers celebrated an Opening Day victory over the White Sox.  The Rangers have another season-opening date with the White Sox on Friday when both teams open their 2012 campaigns.  Here's the latest from the AL West…

• Rangers GM Jon Daniels doesn't expect his club to finalize any contract extensions before Opening Day, he told reporters (including MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan), but Daniels is still hopeful since, "all it takes is one conversation to pick something up again."  While the team prefers to have contract talks settled by Opening Day, Daniels said he is open to negotiating during the season, "if we are able to handle it quietly and not let it be a distraction."  We heard earlier today that Texas is talking about a six-year extension with Ian Kinsler.
• An unnamed Angels player says Bobby Abreu is becoming more accepting of his backup job with the team, according to Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports.  Abreu has spoken out about his reduced role and the Halos are known to be shopping him, with one potential deal with the Indians falling through earlier this week.
• The Athletics released right-hander Edgar Gonzalez last week, tweets Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.  Gonzalez signed a minor league deal with the A's in November.  Gonzalez posted a 5.00 ERA in 26 appearances (25 of them starts) for the Rays and Rockies' Triple-A affiliates last season, appearing in one Major League game with Colorado.  The veteran righty has a 5.90 ERA in 107 career appearances with the Rockies, A's and Diamondbacks since 2003.