Know Your Enemy: Texas Rangers
Let's talk about the Texas Rangers, shall we?
The 2025 season was both disappointing and unsurprising for the Texas Rangers. The club half-assed an effort to compete, entering the season relying on unproven and high-risk talents to deliver, and, shocker, the results was mediocrity at its finest.
This season could be different, thanks to three key acquisitions from the National League East, but it also could simply be more of the same if they don’t happen to get much luck from the IL gods.
Additions
Brandon Nimmo, OF
MacKenzie Gore, LHP
Jordan Montgomery, LHP
Danny Jansen, C
Alexis Diaz, RHP
Jakob Junis, RHP
Andrew McCutchen, OF/DH
Subtractions
Marcus Semien, 2B
Adolis Garcia, RF
Tyler Mahle, RHP
Hoby Milner, LHP
Patrick Corbin, LHP
Shawn Armstrong, RHP
Key Injury Notes
Top prospect Sebastian Walcott will miss the season after undergoing UCL surgery. The prognosis is 5-6 months, technically, but five gets him to July, six to August, and all that lost development time likely means Walcott’s MLB debut is pushed back to next summer.
Nathan Eovaldi, 36, starts Year 2 of a three-year. $75 million deal after missing 10 starts last season with a sports hernia. He was very good in his 22 outings, however.
Jacob deGrom, 38 in June, made it through 30 starts in 2025, the first time since 2019. He wasn’t the best pitcher in baseball, but he did sit 96-98 mph and was among the Top 20 starters in baseball.
Corey Seager will be 32 in April and hasn’t played more than 123 games since 2022. He’s a tremendous hitter and more-than-capable shortstop when healthy, but he missed eight weeks in 2025, five weeks in 2024, six in 2023, and two and a half months in 2021.
If he could manage 140 games, the club’s anchor bat will be able to serve its purpose.
Payroll
$186M 40-man
$183M , 26-man
The Rangers went from bigger payroll to smaller spending, and instead used their farm system to land help in Gore. They have a lot of cash heading out to injury-risk labeled players (Seager, deGrom, Eovaldi), and another $26 million to their backup catcher, swing man, and platoon DH.
Top Prospects
Jose Corniell, RHP
Caden Scarborough, RHP
AJ Russell, RHP
Lots of arms coming up for the Rangers in the next few years — at least six of their best 10 prospects are pitchers, all right-handed, and Josh Owens is a potential two-way player, though more of a bat than an arm right now.
Walcott had a chance to break through to the big leagues in 2026 prior to the injury, likely playing third base. His presence and a 2027 timeline suggest the likes of Jung are on the hot seat, but the runway is clear for a full season to prove his value as an everyday answer.
It was posed to me in March the idea the Rangers might try and trade Seager to pair some payroll and clear space for both Josh Jung and Walcott. Seager is owed $189 million through his age-37 season (6 years), however, and has a partial no-trade clause, greatly limiting trade opportunities, especially without the Rangers eating a significant part of the remaining cash due.
Analysis
The margin for error is thin for the Rangers in every area of their club. They cannot afford to lose any of their three top starters — who are as good a trio as any in the American League — and they’re relying on Seager’s steady presence and a potential breakout from Wyatt Langford to keep the lineup churning.
Nimmo will help — he’s an upgrade to Semien in the lineup — but they are going to need a few others to step up to stay afloat in the division. Josh Jung and Evan Carter have the chops, but can they stay healthy and produce with consistency?
Injuries could easily destroy their season (70-75 wins), and while full health probably keeps them in the playoff hunt (84-89 wins), that’s not a wager anyone should be making.
