ARLINGTON, Texas - The Texas Rangers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday in hopes of spurring completion of the stalled $575 million sale of the team — and maybe clear the decks for the new owners to make pennant-chasing decisions this summer.

The bankruptcy filing comes four months after Tom Hicks announced an agreement to sell the team to a group led by Hall of Fame pitcher and team president Nolan Ryan and Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Greenberg.

“I did not want to put the baseball future of the Texas Rangers in jeopardy or uncertainty for an extended period of time,” Hicks said. “This action is all about creating an end to the impasse in allowing this team sale to go forward.”

Under the plan to be presented at a court hearing Tuesday, the Rangers would pay the $75 million of the club’s debt tied up in Hicks’ financially strapped ownership group. That would remove the team from the additional claims by creditors against Hicks Sports Group that have held up the sale.

“We feel like this is the correct thing to do,” Ryan said. “We have some deadlines coming up that are obviously important to us as a ballclub, and feel like by bringing this to finality that we will then be able to do the things we feel like we need to do and push forward with the winning ways of the ballclub.”

In order for the AL West-leading Rangers to have financial flexibility at the non-waiver trading deadline July 31, the sale of the team will need to be completed. There is also the amateur draft next month.

A 21-page filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fort Worth included the top 30 unsecured creditors, a list headed by Alex Rodriguez, who is owed $24.9 million in deferred compensation six years after he was traded. The next five are also current or former players: Kevin Millwood ($12.9 million), Michael Young ($3.9 million), Vicente Padilla ($1.7 million), Mickey Tettleton ($1.4 million) and Mark McLemore ($970,000).

Even if the court approves the Rangers’ bankruptcy petition, the sale would take several more weeks to complete.

“I know it will be faster than the other alternative would have been,” said Hicks, who bought the team in 1998 from a group that included former president George W. Bush.

Since the filing was made by the team, not Hicks Sports Group, the group of about 40 creditors owed money by HSG could object to the sale. Greenberg knows that’s a distinct possibility.

“Given the way a couple of these renegade creditors have behaved, I’m not expecting an overnight personality transplant,” Greenberg said. “So, the odds are they won’t take this well.”

Greenberg said he doesn’t believe the court will disregard the process so far, “particularly since every creditor of the Texas Rangers will be paid 100 cents on the dollar.”

Young, the longest-tenured Ranger in his 10th season, is the only current Texas player listed in top 30 unsecured creditors. Others creditors listed in the filing include Tickets.com, Rawlings Sporting Goods Co., Clear Channel Outdoor and Stats Inc.

Hicks, Greenberg and Ryan met with the players before their flight Monday night to Kansas City, assuring them that they would continue to be paid on time.

“After a huge sigh of relief, the meeting went on,” Young said. “Once we knew (bankruptcy) was a way to expedite the sale, we knew it wasn’t that big of a deal.”

Slideshow   The Week in Sports Pictures A kayaker flips out, a racehorse eyes the Triple Crown and more. more photos

New baseball players’ union head Michael Weiner said he has “been assured that all contractual commitments to players will be honored in full.”

After an agreement in principle was announced Jan. 23, after more than a month of exclusive negotiations, Greenberg’s group had hoped to have control of the Rangers by opening day. But the deal was slowed by concerns from Hicks’ lenders after Hicks Sports Group defaulted on $525 million in loans last year.

Hicks said it became apparent about a month ago that the Chapter 11 bankruptcy would be the only way to break the stalemate.

The filing is not the first in baseball.