The 40
During Game 7, Texas had 47 players on the 40-man roster including seven on the 60-day Injured List. So, management has a bear of a task to whittle the number to something reasonable to accommodate 40-man additions and free agents, right?
Actually, no. Texas had an MLB-high 12 free agents, so the roster has already decreased to 35. The Rangers acquired two players via waivers or trade from the A’s (catcher Willie MacIver and RHP Michel Otanez) but also removed OFs Dustin Harris and Billy McKinney.
Six Rangers are within multi-year deals: de Grom, Eovaldi, Higashioka, Pederson, Seager, Semien
Nine are arbitration-eligible: RHP Josh Sborz (3rd and final time), RHP Jacob Webb (2nd), C Jonah Heim (3rd/final), IF Jake Burger (1st), IF Ezequiel Duran (1st), OF Adolis Garcia (3rd/final), OF Sam Haggerty (3rd/final). IF Josh Jung (1st), and IF Josh Smith (1st, after narrowly missing Super-2 status last year).
Garcia regained about three-quarters of his 2023 form on defense but endured his worst-ever season at the plate. He ranked 137th of 145 qualifiers in Fangraphs’ batting runs. MLB Trade Rumors projected a 2026 arbitration salary of $12.6 million. Seeing that figure drew an immediate and audible “yipes” from me, not that any amount, even the maximum discount, would have elicited a “yes!”
Heim’s projected salary is a more tolerable $6 million. His decision is complicated by a poor market for substitutes and utter lack of ready options on the farm. Still, among the 49 catchers with a combined 400+ plate appearances that past two seasons, Heim ranks dead last in batting runs and 45th in WAR (per Fangraphs). There’s an argument for non-tendering Heim without an obvious successor and picking the hottest of next spring’s depth signings for MLB work. The resulting production wouldn’t be any better, but it might not be much worse and would save several million that could be put to use elsewhere.
Sborz will live in our hearts forever, but the blunt truth is he’s rarely been both healthy and effective, and he wasn’t close to MLB-readiness late last season. I’d be more inclined to work out a minor deal, if possible. I’d expect offers forthcoming for Jung and Burger, disappointing though they were. Not to make excuses, but Burger endured a lot mentally and physically in 2025 and deserves some sympathy, if not an outright mulligan.
20 Rangers are under team control: pitchers Cody Bradford, Marc Church, Jose Corniell, Luis Curvelo, Robert Garcia, Dom Hamel, Jacob Latz, Jack Leiter, Michel Otanez, Kumar Rocker, Winston Santos, Emiliano Teodo and Cole Winn, catcher Willie MacIver, IFs Justin Foscue and Cody Freeman, and OFs Evan Carter, Michael Helman, Wyatt Langford and Alejandro Osuna.
I suppose all could be tendered, although a few have tenuous holds on their spots and would be ripe for designation or trade as Texas fills the roster.
The just-acquired MacIver is catching depth. He reached the Majors at the age of 28 and batted .186/.252/.324 with three homers in 111 trips to the plate. His production in AAA was much better, if also inflated by Las Vegas. Otanez had a solid if walk-prone MLB debut in 2024 but was beset by injuries and ineffectiveness last season. He deals an upper-90s 4-seamer/sinker combo plus a slider. We’ll see whether the Rangers attempt to sneak them (and last-September claim Dom Hamel) through waivers.
I’d written this before Harris was designated: “Harris had a vastly improved second half in AAA and earned a return to the 40, but the underlying metrics were still frustratingly underwhelming.” Even at his best, he just wasn’t putting much oomph on the ball. He’s still a worthy depth signing, though.
As for potential 40 additions, I’ll deal with them later, but in general the “40-man roster crunch” is the least crunchy in memory. Texas has unusual leeway to add marginal cases, although that doesn’t mean you’ll see a glut of additions.
Texas Minor League Free Agents
The following were originally signed by Texas or had been in the system long enough to be a “Texas guy:”
LHP: Jose Gonzalez, Avery Weems
RHP: Ben Anderson, Geraldo Carrillo, Gavin Collyer, Ryan Garcia, Nick Lockhart, Florencio Serrano
C: Cooper Johnson
IF: Jax Biggers
OF: Marcus Smith, Kellen Strahm
This is the official release list; some others who are eligible (to my knowledge) do not appear. Collyer drew some attention with his upper-90s stuff, and I suppose he had a shot at being added to the 40 to prevent him from walking. Unfortunately, his control was quite poor, and unlike, say, prime-era Demarcus Evans or Joe Barlow, those extra baserunners tended to haunt him. Gonzalez signed in 2019 but didn’t begin making a name for himself until 2024; he’s a low-key back-end/long prospect who I’d be happy to have back.
Weems was part of the Lance Lynn trade. Garcia was Texas’s second-round pick in 2019. Unfortunately, my main memory of him is throwing 110 pitches on three days rest in the NCAA tournament after he’d been drafted. Lockhart drew an outsized signing bonus as an 11th-rounder in 2019 but missed almost all of 2024-2025 to injuries. Texas was able to nab the highly regarded Serrano after MLB nullified his contract with the Cubs due to signing bonus shenanigans, but his years in Texas weren’t noteworthy beyond low-A.
Also becoming free agents: LHP Ty Blach and Michael Plassmeyer, RHP Cory Abbott, Aidan Anderson, Joe Barlow and Cal Quantrill, C Elih Marrero and Omar Narvaez, IF Alex De Goti and Alan Trejo, and OF Luis Mieses.
Elsewhere
Baltimore signed OF Leody Taveras to a $2 million MLB deal. Tampa Bay declined the $11 option on reliever Pete Fairbanks. Caleb Boushley became a free agent after being outrighted.
Pitchers CD Pelham, Jonathan Hernandez, Antoine Kelly, Abdiel Mendoza, Nick Starr and Owen White, C Sam Huff, IF Jonathan Ornelas, Nick Solak, and David Wendzel, and OF Delino DeShields became free agents. San Diego released LHP Wes Benjamin.
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