Tenders
As I half-guessed, Texas concluded the work week with a net loss to the 40-man roster despite several additions. The Rangers declined arbitration to C Jonah Heim, OF Adolis Garcia, RHP Josh Sborz and RHP Jacob Webb, making them free agents. I’m not a young man and know of impermanence, but in case I ever forget, baseball is there to remind me. The Rangers are down to ten players on the 40 predating the 2023 World Series.
In July 2023, Heim suffered a torn wrist tendon sheath. The prognosis was a minimum absence of 2-3 weeks, possibly longer, possibly season-ending surgery. There was discussion of how often he’d play if he returned and whether he’d be able to swing right-handed against lefties. Not only did he return quickly and without a rehab stint, he played in 41 of the team’s final 45 games, 36 of them starting behind the plate. He then started every playoff game. He actually didn’t hit that well in the aggregate, but of course he had some critical hits and defense. A remarkable and likely career-defining run.
Heim hasn’t been the same since, offering one good month and perhaps a couple of other adequate ones in the subsequent two years. I’m the polar opposite of a general-opinion sports columnist, but if that were my job, I’d have a great narrative about how Heim left everything on the field in late 2023 and just hasn’t had anything to give since. There were arguments for keeping him next year – he wouldn’t be that expensive, and the open market and internal options are wanting – but Texas can’t stand pat after 2025.
The Rangers designated Garcia for assignment just before Spring Training in 2021, but no club made a claim, understandably. Garcia was three weeks from his 28th birthday, toolsy but with a dire BB/SO ratio and barely capable of sustaining a .300 OBP in AAA. I watched him in the “Alternate Site” minor league games that filled the gap between Spring Training and the delayed start to minor league season. Texas retrieved him during that time, and he never returned.
I don’t need to recount Garcia’s critical hits, all of which are permanently etched in your brain, occupying the cells that are supposed to remember where you left your keys. Baseball Reference has a stat called Championship Win Probability Added, which is like the standard WPA except measuring how much the playoff performance contributes to a title. It’s a squirrelly stat that ignores defense and is heavily dependent on high-leverage events (for example, Nathan Eovaldi doesn’t get much credit for his heroics), but if you want to measure players by big moments, it’s great fun. By this stat, Garcia won 35% of Texas’s 2023 championship all by himself. He had two of the top three events plus five others that increased Texas’s likelihood of winning the Series by at least 2%.
After the deeply disappointing 2024, Garcia entered this year wanting to hit 50 homers. Which… look, it’s nice to have goals, but I was just hoping for the midpoint between ’23 and ’24. Defensively, he got there, but the offense was even worse. From a purely statistical point of view, there are players so valuable defensively that even egregious offense can be overlooked. Leonys Martin (if you remember him) fit that description. But, if you’re a human running a team and filling out the card, you understandably reach a point at which you can’t tolerate what you see at the plate regardless of compensatory defense, and Garcia was reaching that point. Also, his defense was just good, not great.
Baseball Reference actually bestowed 2.7 WAR upon him in 2025, but much of that so-called value rests on an extreme park-factor calculation that makes Globe Life far more pitcher-friendly than I believe is warranted. (See the fourth paragraph and the last footnote of my article on trying to divine the actual quality of Texas’s 2025 offense.) Fangraphs has him at 0.7, which I think is closer to the “truth.” Even during 2023, I never expected Garcia to stay beyond 2026 when Texas’s control over his fate expired.
Sborz’s activation from the IL in April 2023 was unpopular in the online community. I recall some angry responses to the official announcement on twitter. My rejoinder: “I get it if you’re not a Sborz fan, but in that case you should be happy. If he’s bad he’ll be out of your life soon, if he’s good he’ll be good!” He was indeed good enough to stick, although the season was pockmarked with several bad stretches, and he ended up with a 5.50 ERA. Then, he went on an outrageous heater at the perfect time. Sborz recorded the final seven outs in the final game of the Series, and in the first four, Texas led by a lone run. He was Texas’s most valuable pitcher in the playoffs per the Championship WPA stat.
He’s pitched only 16 MLB innings since, plus 22 in the minors on rehab. I’m sad to say he really didn’t look the part while in Round Rock late last summer. I was actually wondering whether he’d be designated for assignment during that stretch, but his health was such that Texas could just keep him on the IL. I’d be happy to have him back on a minor deal.
Garcia, Heim and Sborz were at their best when Texas (and you and I) needed them most, and that’s how they should be remembered.
Emotions aside, the Webb decision is the one that’s actually perplexing to me. He was homer-prone but blandly competent and wasn’t going to cost more than around $2 million. Texas now has to replace an additional 66 innings. Pitchers who closed the 2025 season in relief for Texas and are still in the organization: Jose Cornieill, Luis Curvelo, Robert Garcia, Jacob Latz, plus the IL’ed Cole Winn. That list is why I thought Webb would be back.
Every pre-arb player was tendered, but the likelihood of all remaining on the 40 until Spring Training is approximately 0.01%.
Take a guess at which current Ranger has been on the 40-man roster the longest. Answer at bottom.
40-Man Additions
Texas added RHP David Davalillo, 1B/OF Abimelec Ortiz and RHP Leandro Lopez.
The surprising omission was IF/OF Cam Cauley. Baseball America deemed him Texas’s toughest decision, while Fangraphs called him a “must-add.” I’d downgraded him from a sure thing to more-likely-than-not in the course of developing my preview. Cauley has defensive versatility, speed and some pop, all desirable qualities in the upcoming draft, and he’s improved his strikeout rate. On the downside, his career batting average is .240, fewer Ks have not resulted in more hits, and his walk rate is bland, so he reaches base at a below-average rate. I think the argument is if he can’t post a solid OBP in AA, imagine the results against MLB pitchers in early 2026, even in a bench role. Another argument is his potential. A regular? Josh Smith-esque utility? End-of-bench up-and-down type? The further down the list we go, the less drafting him and putting up with a possibly sub-replacement 2026 makes sense. Cauley didn’t make Baseball America’s initial list of potential draft picks but will probably be added to an update. If he remains a Ranger, I expect we’ll see plenty of him in Spring Training, and he’ll have a shot to reach the Majors during the season.
The Rangers didn’t add any first-time eligibles from the 2021 or 2022 drafts, although they certainly would have added Mitch Bratt and Kohl Drake, both protected after being acquired by Arizona. Remarkably, Texas is already down to just five players remaining in the system from the ’22 draft: RHP Kumar Rocker (1), RHP Brock Porter (4), IF/OF Chandler Pollard (5), RHP Luis Ramirez (7) and RHP Jackson Kelley (12). The Rangers had no second or third-round picks that year (for good reason!), and five of 18 didn’t sign, so the group was small from the jump.
Per Baseball America, only 61% of the 27 first-time-eliglble first rounders were protected league-wide, a full 10% worse than the previous low in 2018. The Royals left picks from 2021 (high-school pitcher Frank Mozzicato, 7th overall) and 2022 (college OF Gavin Cross, 9th) unprotected. The Mets didn’t add catcher Kevin Parada, loosely linked to the Rangers in 2022 and drafted 11th overall.
Answer
Ezequiel Duran was added to the 40 in November 2021. Longest in the organization is Jacob Latz, signed in June 2017.
Skip to content
tantamount to cordial