Texas Rangers’ most realistic offseason could see Adolis Garcia traded, minor signings

Texas Rangers’ most realistic offseason could see Adolis Garcia traded, minor signings

We’ve looked at the best and the worst case scenarios, but on today’s show, we’re looking at the most realistic case scenario for the Rangers off seasonason. All that and more on the episode of Locked On Rangers. Let’s get into it. You are Locked On Rangers, your daily Texas Rangers podcast, part of the Locked On. Your team every day. You are locked on the Texas Rangers, the first and best daily Rangers podcast. I’m Bryce Patrick, a crippingly addicted Texas Rangers fan, covering this team for 12 seasons, including all seven as the founder and host of this podcast. Thank you all so much for making lock on Rangers your first listen every single day, part of the Locked On Network, now the number one sports podcast network. You can follow me on Twitter, Bryce Patrick, and follow the show at Lockdown Ranger. Hit subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and on YouTube, where the best way you can help grow the show is to comment nearly any single thing below. Now, on today’s show, I’m talking about the most realistic case scenario for the Rangers off seasonason. How can they get themselves back into contention with what will most likely be at least a modified limited budget? Before we get into all that, today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use all across the app. Download the FanDuel app today. Now, on yesterday’s show, I talked about the worst case scenario for an incredibly limited Rangers budget, what that would make the offseason probably look like. On Monday’s show, I talked about the best case scenario for the Rangers off season, where I hope the budget will probably be. I mean, a lot of this comes down to where the budget is and how much the Rangers can actually afford to spend. Because even if you spend the most money, it does not guarantee success, but it does buy you a whole lot of wiggle room. and the wiggle room to make some mistakes. It buys you margin for error. That’s what the rich teams have that the poor teams do not have. If some poor team there chooses to be poor team like the Rays or the Pirates spends bad on a free agent that and they it goes south quickly, they don’t have a whole lot of margin for error. They have to really really play on the edges of the market pretty much every time out there. They can’t afford to take some big risks. And when you sign somebody to a big contract, that usually takes on a big risk. Right now, the Rangers, I don’t think they’re going to play at the top end of the market for pretty much any of these positions, maybe closer. That might be the one spot where the Rangers of say, hey, let’s throw some cash at this problem. It has been a problem at least last year, and it was a problem for well, the regular season in 2023. Wasn’t a problem the postseason 2023. Raiders had a good closer and a good eighth inning guy in 2024. But kind of melding those bullpen approaches because the Rangers have to rebuild the re rebuild their bullpen yet again this off season. They have to fortify their rotation. They are probably going to make some costcutting moves at both catcher and possibly in right field. So they will need to go get other guys to fill those spots on the roster. So let’s look at where they are right now. The payroll has them projected for $29 million. We’re all talking luxury tax because that’s what it all comes down to. I don’t think there’s any way the Rangers go into the luxury tax this year. I think they are just putting that as priority number one, which I think is a mistake. I think focusing on the luxury tax and not what you need to do to get your team better is uh a little bit less of how I would approach it had I had stumbled into several billion dollars and blocked this team. Um, but I unfortunately am not owning the Texas Rangers. I unfortunately do not have several billion dollars to drop on a baseball team. So this is the reality that we live in. So right now that gives the Rangers, let’s say $230 million is the budget that they’re given. That’s still $15 million away from the luxury tax. It is less than the Rangers spent this past year. They went basically right into that luxury tax right around 240 million. This year it’s up from 241 to 245 at the lowest case scenario. Worst case scenario, I had them at $220 million. I think that’s way below where they should be. That would probably be somewhere in the 12 to 15ish range in terms of teams in the ranking of their payroll. This is a top five market. They should be spending like a top five market. This is a team that just won a championship not that long ago. This is a team that owns the rights to all of their broadcasting. They outsource their streaming, but all of their TV broadcasting. They own those rights. They are making that money directly. They’re not working with a middleman anymore. They’re making plenty of cash. They are making plenty of cash. So, $230 million is where I’m shooting for right now. Right smack dab in the middle of not quite at the luxury tax, but kind of pushing up against it. Not quite at the Yeah, we really actually are going to strip this thing down for parts. So, to get to the $230 million right now, they’re at $29 million. I’d say the Rangers are probably going to non-tender Jonahheim. He’s projected to make $6 million in arbitration. Adulles Garcia. I don’t think they’re going to non-tender him, but I think there is a team that could be in the market for his services. Let’s say that’s Kansas City. They have already the Royals that is they have said that they are on the market for trading for an outfielder. Can I interest you in one of Garcia? You can send back prospects. I don’t know the Royals system well enough to come up with a package on the fly for Garcia. It’s not a strong system. It’s a fine system. They’re kind of middle of the pack, but they’re not, you know, the Rangers in the 20145 or so range where they just had a bazillion top 100 prospects. They’re not the Baltimore Orioles of the last couple years that have had a bazillion top 100 prospects. They’re they’re fine. It’ll be fine. The Rangers will cut off $13 million on their payroll, but they will need to find somebody to play every day in right field. Right now, that would probably be Alejandra Ozuna, who cannot hit lefties at all. So, the Rangers will need themselves a righty bench bat. So, let’s look at the needs. Overall, gives them about say $40 million. That would put them right at $40 million to spend this off season to get them to 230 million. They need one and a half starting pitchers. They need four relievers, a backup catcher, righty bench pet, and a partridge in a pear tree. But, but since they’re skimping on the payroll, maybe no partridge in a pear tree this time. We’ll we’ll see what we get to at the end if we’ve got room for the partridge or a pear tree or just a pair because the reindeers have really been cutting those pennies and so maybe even a tree, maybe a leaf is what they can afford at the end of this exercise. But let’s start with starting rotation. Two starting pitchers. Let’s let’s just say two starting pitchers who will combine for about a starter and a half’s workload. I say starting with Tyler Mi. That return seems likely. It seems like something that makes sense for Tyler Mi. It’s something that makes sense for the Rangers. It’s the contract projection that I’m not I’m the least sure on. I think of of anybody that’s at least a Rangers internal free agent, that’s the one that I have the least feel for how much it’s going to be. I projected the exact same deal. Not exactly the same deal, but the same overall deal that he had just signed with the Rangers two years ago. Now, he was coming off of Tommy John surgery, so he missed most of 2024, and it was a lot backloaded on 2025, expecting he would be making more then. It was two years, $22 million. The first year of that deal, he made $5 million, and he made $16 million. In the second year of that deal, averaging $11 million per year. Could the Rangers possibly flip that? Could they say, “Hey, what if we give you a player option for the second year? You try and build up your value, hit the free agent market again. if things go well. And if not, we have kind of a bo insurance kind of a thing for the second year. I don’t know if he would go for that. Maybe one year $16 million is is what that would do. But if you sign him to that 2-year deal, it makes it the $16 million he would make in 2026, not count against the luxury tax as $16 million. It would count as $11 million. And I think that could be something that appeals to him. he ends up he would probably end up opting out after that first year and trying to reestablish value unless he has a really really terrible year or gets hurt at the end of 2026 and then he still got that contract for $5 million to come back to the team in 2027. I think that makes a whole lot of sense and we’ll see how many innings he can actually pitch next year. He has not been particularly durable. He has been fantastic when he’s been pitching. the numbers, the expected numbers are a little a little actually a lot worse than what he actually did last year. But the actual results were fantastic and he’s got this same team, same apparatus for the most part around him. No Mike Maddox helping him coach himself, coach him up to the best version of himself. But I still think there is that version of Tyler Mali that’s in there and the Rangers would definitely want him back. He back. He had lost his last year. would see why he would want to come back and I think that is something that the Rangers might just make that their first priority this off seasonason. Now you need another starting pitcher and there’s a guy who’s not going to cost all that much money. A veteran who has been around for my goodness so freaking long. That’s Jose Kintana adding a lefty to this rotation signing him to a one-year $3.4 million deal. He is coming off of a season with the Brewers, which spiritually feels like this guy has been a Brewer for a long time. But, um, this was only his first season in Milwaukee, an in RA just below four, 24 starts last year, 130 innings, not a whole lot of strikeouts, not a whole lot of walks, not a whole lot of hard contact. He is a crafty lefty through and through. Heading into his age, 37 season, this is a guy you can count on for about 20 to 25 starts. He will be fine. He will be solid. He has been fine and solid for quite some time and I think adding him on a threeyear or a one-year three and a halfish million dollar deal. I think that is a good fortification to your rotation. Gives you somebody stable at the back end gives you some depth if you have some injuries or some underperformance in your rotation. Plug in Jose Canana. He’s going to be fine. You’re not going to want to start him in a postseason game, but to get you through the regular season, you need guys like Jos Canana. And at that kind of a deal, I think that just makes too much sense for the Rangers to not go after it. Coming up, we’re going to talk about this reliever group. The Rangers need to sign for relievers. Do they have enough money to go get one of these certified topof the market closers? Talk about that and more right after this. 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Seeing the price you’re actually going to pay upfront makes such a big old difference. So download the Game Time app. Create an account and use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, that’s promo code LK E MLB for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Download the Game Time app today. Now, let’s look at this bullpen. What exactly are the Rangers going to do with their bullpen? They’re going to do something for sure. They need to do something for sure. Robert Garcia is not blocking into next season as the Rangers opening day. Closer. He is going to be a big part of that rotation, getting some leverage outs, but at closer specifically, it just has not worked or I guess did not work this past season. Well, I don’t think that they’re going to be eager to try that again to start out the year. But there’s a lot of closers on this market. There are a lot of pretty darn good relievers on this market that are going to cost a pretty penny. I I don’t think the Rangers are going to play at the top top end of the market on any position. But if they are, this is the position they’ll be kicking around. I still don’t think they end up there. I’m not thinking they’re going to be in the bidding war for Edwin Diaz. It’s It’s the Mets. The Mets are probably going to throw a crap ton of money at Edwin Diaz yet again. He has been very good for them. I don’t see a scenario where the Rangers go and try and outbid the Mets. That’s not a that’s not a winning strategy for the Rangers in any free agent battle. I don’t think it won with Jacob Deg Grom, but uh that’s because they did not have Steve Cohen at the helm back then. If they did, I don’t I don’t think Jacob Deg Grom would ever have left the New York Mets. But Robert Suarez, I think, is going to be a bit out of the Rangers price range. Brian Helsley, he’s projected for $13 and a half million dollars per year. I think it gets more than that. I really do. Bryce Elacius, I I could see the Rangers going that way. I I don’t know what kind of a market is going to be there for him. Pete Fairbanks scares me. If the Rays are saying no thanks and they just were not getting offers at the trade deadline for Fairbanks. His velocity has been down quite a bit. Um I I just I don’t know that’s where I want the Rangers to go. Kley Jance is an interesting option. I’m not sure about. I looked more into it today and Jansen has has really gone down. He was he was a fine closer last year. A two and a half erra with the Angels. He did close out 29 games, got 29 saves, 479 saves on his career. If you want a certified closer, this is the guy. But there is a reason that only the Angels were in on him last year. I guess only the Angels pushed that across the finish line. A one-year $10 million deal. if the Rangers had used that money towards Kenley Jansen last year. May maybe things go a little bit differently. But I just I’m scared out of my mind when I see an older pitcher who the the strikeout rate, the swing and miss rate is dropping to this degree. I mean, he has been barreled up quite a bit the last couple years. He’s been hit hard, incredibly hard for the last couple years. mean the exit average exit velocity last year was at in the third percentile the third the bottom 3% of the worst hardest hit balls given up where when he’s right as as recently as 2022 I mean he was in the top 20% of baseball but consistently with the Dodgers he’s in the top five top one top zero% of baseball he was the top guy in terms of average exit velocity against in 2018 in the top 1% of baseball one two three four years out of five years, he was the soft contact king. And when you’re a cutter, that’s kind of what you have, a cutter specialist, that’s what you have to be. He’s a guy who has just one pitch. Also, his arm angle is just so incredibly different throughout the years. It just it stresses me out. I don’t know what exactly is going on with all of that. And I just I’m just worried about a guy who’s heading into his age 38 season. gotten it done pretty much everywhere he’s been, which has been mostly with LA, but you know, quite a few places over the last four years. I mean, Atlanta, Boston, LA, uh the other LA, I guess Anaheim specifically, not as much LA. I completely forgot that he was in Atlanta in 2022 just slipped my mind, but in Boston the last couple years before Anaheim, he was he was pretty darn good. He was solid. He’s a 25 RA for his career. This RA last year was basically right in line with what he had done for his entire career. I’m just a little skeptical at spending $13 million on one guy. There is a guy who has had some moderate closer experience. Not not quite as many as 476 saves in his career. But I think the Rangers should go after Luke Weaver. He had some closer experience this year, a little bit of closing experience in 2024. Eight saves this year, which would have been uh I guess fourth on the Rangers. If he had one more, he would have been tied with the three guys who the Rangers had closing out games this year. But because he was a member of the New York Yankees that had about 17 different closers that they all tried throughout the season, he did not really get that many save opportunities. Luke Weaver has been a fantastic reliever for the the last couple years and a guy who made the change from aggressively mediocre to bad starting pitcher to incredible reliever. I mean, truly incredible reliever. strikeout rate, the whiff rate, chase rate, all of those are in the top 20% of baseball, expected RA, expected batting average, all of those in the top 11% of baseball. I mean, this is a guy who gets a lot of swings and misses, doesn’t really beat himself with walks, doesn’t really beat himself with hard contact. He’s good. He’s very good. And he has done it in leverage spots, in high leverage games, because if you’re pitching for the New York Yankees, you’re going to pitch in a lot of big games with a big old spotlight on you. And I think that pressure simulates what it’s like to be a closer. And that’s why I think two years, $20 million total for Lou Weaver would be a steal. $10 million a year for a reliever who’s got nasty, nasty strikeout stuff. Heck, in 2024, he had a sub3 RA 289. He had 84 innings pitch and 103 strikeouts. This year, just an out shy of 65 innings and 72 strikeouts, a 362 ERA, which was a little higher than the expected numbers say that it should be. Part of that is probably Yankee Stadium. Pitching at Rangers Land is probably going to be a little bit easier on him in terms of the random home runs given up on wall scrapers to right field. There’s not as many of those in Globe Lifefield as there are at Yankee Stadium. I think this is a great option for the Rangers who play at the top end of the market, but not go into the silly astronomical range of 15 to$20 million for closer. I think this makes the most sense. That gives the Rangers some wiggle room to go and get middle relievers back or I guess kind of high leverage relievers in Sean Armstrong and Danny Kulum. Both those guys signing a one-year $4 million deal like they’re projected to. I would love Shawn Armstrong back. Phil Mton has been linked to the Rangers a whole lot. There’s mutual interest to come back, but if he’s signing somewhere in the, you know, more than $6 million range, heck, more than $5 million a year for any reliever that’s not a closer, I just I think it’s too much. I think it’s too much with what the Rangers are going to be hamstrung with with their budget. I think just spending more than seven spending because you’ll spend 10 12 $15 million on a closer and then if you also spend $7 million on your setup man, then you’ve got basically no money to play with for the other relievers. You got to go kind of at the bottom of the market. You maybe go get like Jose L clerk on a super boow deal for about a million dollars a year. Um, I also have Kirby Yates signing a one-year $1 million $1.1 million deal with the Rangers, a buy low option for another high potentially high leverage guy who’s coming off a bad season with the LA Dodgers where he’s been hurt. He’s heading into, I believe, the last year of his 30s. He is very much on the older side. Had some success in Texas. Maybe Jordan Tees still being there. He was the Rangers bullpen coach in 2024 and has been for quite some time. him being the bullpen coach of Kirby Yates during his best career season. Maybe that gets the best out of Kirby Yates coming back to Texas on a buy low deal. And the Rangers rebuild their bullpen with Luke Weaver at the closer, Shawn Armstrong, Danny Kulum manning some of those high leverage outs. And then Kirby Yates as the by low random reliever who you can stick in there in the sixth, seventh, maybe eighth inning. And hey, if if Luke Weaver falls off and Kirby Yates is anywhere near the version of himself in 2024, then the Rangers might have been able to just buy themselves a closer at one year, $1.1 million, which is a fantastic steal. But the Rangers aren’t done yet. They would not be done just yet. They need a backup closer, and they’re going to need a righty mashing a lefty killer that kills a right-handed bat that kills lefties for some of those platoon. Are there any batters out there that fit that description? Talk about that and more right after this. The show is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. 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Already, we have spent, or I guess I theoretically have spent $14.4 $.4 million of Ray Davis’s money on the starting rotation, $19.1 million on the bullpen. And that leaves us with not all that much money to go and get the last two things that the Rangers will need this off seasonason. That’s a backup catcher and a right-handed bench bat to come in in platoon when there’s a lefty starter on the mound. So, let’s start with the backup catcher. That is the more pressing, more dire need, Victor Keratini. one year, $2.2 million. He has been about an average bat, a pretty solid defensive catcher. If this guy is your backup, that’s solid. He’s been fine for the Astros the last couple years to good at times. I feel like every single one of his home runs is against the Rangers. Uh maybe playing for the Rangers, playing at Global Life Field will allow him to actualize the best possible version of himself and maybe he just goes the heck off playing with the Rangers. Maybe it takes the edge off playing uh with the Rangers and not against them. I I don’t know. We’ll see what that would look like. But I think Victor Keratini makes a whole lot of sense here. A another catcher that can take a little bit of the load off of your primary catcher who is absolutely going to be Kyle Hagashi next year. I mean, he had a great season last year. Would have loved to seen him in a little bit more games, but he was solid. He was really solid for Texas in his first season. And Jonah was not. That was a whole lot more games caught by Jonah than I think the Rangers would have liked because Kyle Hagashi was dealing with a little bit of injuries throughout the course of this season. But Higgy was great behind the dish for the Rangers, but he needs some help. Needs somebody else to take some of that big old burden of the workload off because he’s heading into his age 36 season. Victor Keratini is a solid backup and for $2.2 million, that is a great deal for Texas. Now, the Rangers still have about $4.3 million to work with. Is there anybody that perfectly fits that righty bench bat, a guy who crushes left-handed pitching who is available? Yes, exactly that. There is exactly that fit. Rob Reed, who is projected to sign a one-year 4.3 million deal. This is a guy who has spent time with a lot of different organizations including Texas in the past back in 2020 for just the hottest of minutes, not not very long at all. But last year with Boston, he absolutely annihilated Latinipi, which is what he’s done for his entire career against lefties. Last year in 57 games, he had a 959 OPS. A 959 OPS. Batted over 300, just a point shy of a 400 on base percentage, and slugged 560. This guy destroyed left-handed pitching. I mean, this is one of the best hitters against left-handed pitching in all of Major League Baseball. Was he good against righties? No, not particularly. He had a 616 OPS against righties and a 950 OPS against lefties. He plays a lot of different positions, mostly corner outfield, second base, first base. But if the Rangers are going to throw Alejandra Ozuna out there in right field most days, Evan Carter in center field most days and Wyatt Langford in left field most days against right-handed starters, you throw Rob Snyder out there in right field or left field, wherever you need him. Maybe you throw Josh Smith out there in right field or left field or wherever you need him um at certain points next year. I think that gives the Rangers a good a good core of guys who can absolutely crush lefties. Especially if you’ve got Michael Helman on your bench and he’s coming in there in center field to play on days where the Rangers are facing off against a left-handed starting pitcher. I think that makes a whole lot of sense. Maybe you get Zeke Durant in there in the outfield. Some days when you got a lefty starter on the mound, you put Wyatt Langford out there in center. whatever the arrangement actually looks like. Rob Revser has been consistent at destroying left-handed pitching and the Rangers need a guy on their on their bench that does that because they have got so many left-handed bats in this lineup. Or heck, maybe DH Rob Snder because I I don’t necessarily think the Rangers going to start Jock Peterson every day against left-handed starting pitching. May maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Jock just has a career resurgent season next year and this year was just an aberration, a fluke. I’m hoping, really hoping that was the case. There were some positive signs throughout the year last year. The overall results weren’t positive, but the expected results were not indicative of someone that was just completely falling apart due to old age. That that’s just not exactly what it was. We we’ll see if he actually bounces back next year. But um I think Robert Snder makes the perfect amount of sense, especially since that puts the Rangers off season at $40 million on the dot, which would put them right at the budget I set out for this exercise, $130 million. This would be fine. This would be a fine offseason. I would be happy about this off season. I wouldn’t be the most thrilled and overjoyed. an extra $10 million here. You might have been able to go a little bit more aggressive on the relief market. Maybe you go and get a closer who’s at the top end of the market. You feel good about that. You you go and get a Robert Suarez. Maybe you go and I don’t think they’re going to kick the tires on Evan Diaz. I think that one’s going to be a bit out of their price range, but maybe a Ryan Hley. Maybe that is something that makes sense. Maybe they go and get a Rice Elacius. I don’t know if Glazius is projected to sign a lower deal than Luke Weaver, but I think this is an offseason that seems reasonable, seems fine. Maybe in there you also throw in a Wyatt Langford contract extension. I’ll talk about that on a later episode. Maybe it’ll be tomorrow’s episode. Maybe it’ll be Friday. Maybe it’ll be um next week at some point. But this is about the kind of an offseason that you can expect. I would love an offseason where the Rangers are again pushing up against the luxury tax and Chris Young part of his job as a GM is to get that extra dollar from the owner. That’s part of what good general managers do because pretty much every owner unless you have Steve Cohen as your owner or the Guggenheim Group and you’re literally printing money because you’re winning back-to-back championships. You’ve got Shia Otani. He is literally printing you a mint in Japan. And so you’ve got all the money in the world to spend. Or you’re the Yankees and you just kind of always have all the money in the world to spend. You’ve got to press that owner to just go a little bit further, give just a little bit more to this budget because a lot of times these owners are not particularly willing to go into the crazy zone. I mean, this luxury tax only exists because the ownership groups put it into the collective bargaining agreement. Because they put it in their own language, they can give themselves an excuse to say, “Oh, no, we can’t spend that much money.” Then we have a tax that we imposed on ourselves, but oh no, it’s the luxury tax. Someone else, they they pretend like there is this luxury tax is is some some, you know, boogeyman in the night that they don’t know how it got there. H how did that happen? Whoa, the luxury tax. There’s nothing we could do about that. When they put it in there, they put it in the language so they’d have an excuse of this is the level that we can, you know, cry poor at. This is the level we can say, “Hey, oh no, we don’t want to spend crazy money.” And as a GM, your job is to kind of find a way to tell that ownership group to convince that ownership group to just spend that much more. just a little bit more, just a little bit more and more and more and more each time until you get to that actual firm budget. If you can get your ownership group to push just a little bit more in, you have that much more res that many more resources, that much more margin for error to go out and spend just a little bit. Especially if you’re wise with your signings, that also helps if the big money signings that you get pay off. If you sign a Corey Seager to a $325 million deal, the biggest deal in franchise history, and he becomes exactly what you said he would be, that gives you a little bit more leverage with ownership to say, “Hey, remember when I told you that Cory Seager was going to be the best thing since sliced toast here? That he was going to bring a championship here and he was going to win a World Series MVP because that’s what he freaking does. He’s going to be a baseballing robot that’s just awesome every single year. That’s what he did. Yeah, let me go do that again with X player or X player. He trusts me on that. Trust me on this. Now, Deg Grom is one where it kind of has worked out and hasn’t worked out. If if we have another great season of Deg Grom, he can be like, “Hey, that was built in there.” The risk of him missing multiple seasons with Tommy John Surgery was built in there, but look what he is when he’s on the mound. Look at Nathan Evoli. Look what he did in the first year of that new contract. He was incredible. You can go to those your ownership group and say, “Hey, you’ve trusted me with this. You’ve trusted me with this deal and this deal and this deal. I know Simeon isn’t being great at the plate right now. Still providing value. Still was third in MVP voting literally two years ago. Trust me with some of these deals. And for the most part, most part they’ve worked out. Look at the deals that he’s done in free agency on basically almost every reliever that he signed last year in free agency worked out. They were at least fine. They were at least solid. There was nobody that they got in relief that was just not anywhere near worth what they were making. I mean, they didn’t pay anybody all that much money. I mean, Chris Martin was the highest paid guy. He still pitched 42 innings and had a sub3 RA and struck out about a batter per inning. That’s about what you’re expecting from him in high leverage spots. Sean Armstrong, they got on the absolute cheap end of the deal. I believe about a million and a half dollars last year, a two, three RA, nine saves. I mean, exactly a strikeout peritting. like I was awesome. And so he has built up that, you know, relationship capital with Ray Davis to say, hey, just just push that budget a little bit further than Ry would initially be comfortable with. That is why Chris Young, I think, is a good GM. Now, there’s been some moves that he has made that have not worked out. The offense is kind of locked into being basically this. Um, and there’s not a whole lot they can do with it. That’s why the only the only batters they’re signing are a backup catcher and a platoon guy in Rob Russder. I think those guys would make this team a whole lot better. But, uh, this is kind of where the Rangers are at this off seasonason. I I just I don’t see a way that’s most realistic that they don’t end up without Jonah next year. They don’t end up with Adel Garcia on another team. Personally, it’s gonna bum me out to such an insane degree not seeing Adels Garcia out there making those great catches in right field and occasionally hitting those game-breaking home runs and the energy he plays with it. It’s going to be a huge bummer seeing Adels Garcia on another team. But I think that is probably how this offseason is going to go. Brace yourself for it emotionally. Go watch some 2023 ALCS highlights. Go watch that walk-off home run in the World Series. Go watch some of the other big moments that Elvis Garcia has had in a Rangers uniform and maybe it’ll make the pain just a little bit more bearable. That’s going to do it for today’s show. Thank you all so much for listening and subscribing and until next time, don’t forget to enjoy baseball.

The Texas Rangers had the best pitching staff in MLB in 2025 but could still use some extra help in the rotation with so many free agents leaving. A worst-case offseason might include only Patrick Corbin in the rotation, and a big contract to Devin Williams coming off his worst career season.

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