Ramirez, who turns 41 May 30, hasn’t played in the majors since April in 2011, when he was suspended for testing positive for a second time for a performance-enhancing drug. Rather than serving the 100-game suspension and returning to the Rays, he announced his retirement.

He signed with Oakland last season but didn’t play a regular-season game, never progessing past Triple A.

He played in the Dominican Winter League and said he wished to return to the majors this season but drew little interest.

Ramirez has 555 major league home runs and a .996 career OPS.

No charges brought

A grand jury in Dallas declined to indict the teenage son of Detroit Tigers outfielder Torii Hunter in a sexual assault case.

Darius McClinton-Hunter was arrested in May with four others in Prosper, north of Dallas, and accused of sexual assault. A Collin County grand jury indicated Wednesday there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute him.

McClinton-Hunter has denied the allegations. His attorney, Todd Shapiro, said that the 18-year-old was ‘‘elated.’’

‘‘He finally feels vindicated,’’ Shapiro said in an interview. ‘‘He knew from the very day he was arrested that he didn’t commit any crime.’’

Authorities in Prosper alleged that McClinton-Hunter, co-defendant Garrick White and three boys listed as juveniles were involved in a forced sexual encounter with several girls. The grand jury declined to indict all five people of sexual assault, attorneys for two of the defendants said.

The grand jury did indict White for unlawful restraint of a child.

Berkman set to go

Lance Berkman will make his spring training debut for the Texas Rangers on Thursday against the Indians in Surprise, Ariz. Berkman has been bothered by a mild right calf strain, and the Rangers have been cautious with the 37-year-old switch-hitter. He played only 32 games with St. Louis last season because of two operations on his right knee and a left calf strain. While being held out of the first six spring games, Berkman has still been going through workouts and some base-running drills. He is scheduled to be the designated hitter against Cleveland. Berkman said he feels good and is looking forward to getting into games. ‘You need some at-bats to kind of get a good gauge of where you are with your spring,’’ he said. ‘‘From a practice standpoint, I feel pretty good. But there’s certainly work to do and I'm sure I'll find that out [Thursday], just where I'm at, just in terms of timing and bat speed and all of that.’’ . . . Players association head Michael Weiner is skeptical that the Yankees will reduce payroll next year. Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner says the team wants to get under the $189 million luxury tax threshold in 2014. That means the player payroll would have to be about $178 million at most, using average annual values of contracts, since the total for the tax will include at least $11 million in benefits such as the pension plan. ‘‘I imagine that Mr. Steinbrenner is sincere when he says that, but like a lot of things, I'll believe it when I see it,’’ Weiner said. New York has paid $224.6 million in luxury tax since the current system began in 2003, including $19.3 million for 2012.

Haren roughed up