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Major League Baseball (MLB) team the Texas Rangers has filed for bankruptcy in a bid to speed up a takeover of the franchise.

Texas Rangers Baseball Partners, the current owner of the club, and Rangers Baseball Express, the local investor group led by team president Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg, this week revealed the plan to facilitate completion of the previously announced sale of the franchise to the Greenberg-Ryan group – a proposal that has been fully backed by MLB.

The sale of the club and its lease of the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, together with the separate sale of the land around the ballpark, have an aggregate transaction value of approximately $575m.

The Press Association reports that the Rangers sale will be accomplished through a voluntary, "pre-packaged" court-supervised process under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code in the wake of a plan previously negotiated and agreed to by the current Rangers owners and the Greenberg-Ryan group.

The pre-packaged plan provides sufficient sale proceeds for the Rangers creditors to recover 100 per cent of the portion of Hicks Sports Group’s debt that is guaranteed by the Rangers and for all Rangers creditors to be paid in full. Texas Rangers Baseball Partners has requested that a hearing be held in 45 days to confirm the proposed sale and plan of reorganisation. The sale is expected to be completed by mid-summer, subject to court approval, which will then allow the franchise to exit the Chapter 11 process.

"This plan to complete the sale of the Texas Rangers serves the best interests of the team, its fans, MLB and all other parties involved," said MLB commissioner Bud Selig.

"This agreement assures an orderly process to expeditiously transfer Rangers ownership to the Greenberg-Ryan group, and it protects the franchise's baseball operations.

“Rangers fans can have confidence that their team has the resources it needs to compete. Clearly, this could not and would not have happened without Tom Hicks' leadership and hard work over a long period of time."