Gagne, who has a limited no-trade clause, consented to the trade today, a person familiar with the talks said, speaking on condition of anonymity because an announcement had not yet been made.

Once one of baseball's premier closers, Gagne joined a Boston bullpen that already had two All-Star relievers: closer Jonathan Papelbon and setup man Hideki Okajima.

But the Red Sox, who entered toay leading the AL East by eight games over the New York Yankees, didn't want to take any chances of blowing their big lead and acquired Gagne to bolster the back end of their bullpen after consecutive implosions last weekend by Papelbon and Manny Delcarmen.

Boston sent left-hander Kason Gabbard and minor league outfielders David Murphy and Engel Beltre to the Rangers, who were the busiest team in the majors before today's 4 p.m. EDT non-waiver trade deadline. Earlier, they completed the deal that sent Teixeira and pitcher Ron Mahay to the Braves for rookie catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia and four minor leaguers.

Last week, the Rangers traded outfielder Kenny Lofton to the Cleveland Indians for minor league catcher Max Ramirez.

Milwaukee, clinging to its NL Central lead, also had been interested in obtaining Gagne.

Gagne signed a $6 million, one-year contract with the Rangers in December after eight successful seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He went 2-0 with a 2.16 ERA and 16 saves for last-place Texas, which began a three-game series in Cleveland 15› games behind the first-place Los Angeles Angels in the AL West.

The 31-year-old Gagne was a three-time All-Star and won the NL Cy Young Award in 2003 when he saved 55 games for the Dodgers.

He had 45 saves in 2004 but was limited to just 14 the following season because of elbow problems that eventually needed surgery. The hard-throwing native of Montreal pitched in only two games last season as he tried to come back from another elbow operation as well as surgery to repair a herniated disc.