{"id":845352,"date":"2026-11-04T08:48:18","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T08:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/845352\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T08:48:18","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T08:48:18","slug":"rangers-president-2027-payroll-to-be-similar-to-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/845352\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers President: 2027 Payroll To Be Similar To 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young met this week with members of the media, including Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News<\/a>, to talk about various topics related to the club. He said the aim will be for the 2027 club to be competitive will running a \u201cvery similar\u201d payroll to 2026.<\/p>\n

According to the MLBTR Payroll Tracker<\/a>, the Rangers had a cash\/LRD payroll of $193MM this year, with a competitive balance tax number of $219MM. The club\u2019s 2027 numbers are projected to be $175MM and $194MM, respectively, both about $20MM lower than in the season that just finished.<\/p>\n

$20MM is a lot of money for a normal person but isn\u2019t a ton of spending capacity for a major league club these days. The Rangers went 80-82 this year and have a lot of holes to fill. In a sense, they don\u2019t need to improve too much, as it only took 81 wins for the Astros to take the A.L. West this year. But it seems safe to assume that was a historic low and it will take at least a win total in the mid-80s next year, if not higher.<\/p>\n

That then raises the question of whether the Rangers can move some money around. \u201cAs we gauge the interest in our current players, it allows us the ability to understand how we could reallocate [dollars],\u201d Young said. \u201cI think everybody knows we\u2019re not going to have the exact same roster we had last season. There will be changes. So, we are hard at work right now determining what those changes may be and understanding what the respective markets are. And that\u2019s where trades are made. You oftentimes trade one player to make yourself stronger in two different spots, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re looking to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his column, Grant infers that this means the club will pursue trades of players like Corey Seager<\/a>, Jacob deGrom<\/a> and\/or Nathan Eovaldi<\/a>. It\u2019s an understandable leap to make, as those will be three of the club\u2019s highest-paid players. deGrom will make $37MM next year. His deal also has a club option for 2028. Eovaldi will make $20MM. Seager will make $31MM and will continue making that same salary through 2031.<\/p>\n

Moving those players would create some more payroll space but there are hang-ups. All three players have full no-trade protection, for starters. deGrom and Eovaldi have that as part of their contracts. Seager now has 10-and-5 rights, having just completed his fifth year with the Rangers. deGrom already invoked his no-trade clause to block a trade to Atlanta at the deadline. Perhaps he\u2019d be more willing to waive it in the offseason but that\u2019s speculative. Even if it proves to be true, he might have a narrow list of places he\u2019s willing to approve a trade to.<\/p>\n

There are issues beyond the contractual matters. deGrom is 38 years old, turning 39 in June. He was still a fairly effective pitcher in 2026, posting a 4.20 earned run average, but he won\u2019t have massive trade value when considering his age, injury history and hefty salary. It\u2019s a fairly similar situation with Eovaldi, who also posted a 4.20 ERA this year. He will turn 37 in February.<\/p>\n

Seager is notably younger, turning 33 in April, but there are still issues there. Even in his prime, he was fairly injury prone. It\u2019s pretty rare for him to stay healthy for a full year. He hasn\u2019t topped 123 games played in a season since 2022. He was capped at 102 contests in each of the past two seasons. His 2026 performance was below his usual standards, as he hit .227\/.312\/.424 for a wRC+ of 106. This year\u2019s free agent class of shortstops<\/a> is weak, which could help the Rangers, but Seager\u2019s market would still be limited by his health track record and contract.<\/p>\n

Grant doesn\u2019t mention Brandon Nimmo<\/a> in his post but he\u2019s worth a mention as well. He will make $20.25MM annually through 2030. He has full no-trade protection in his deal. He waived that once to be traded from the Mets to the Rangers but it\u2019s unclear if he would want to do that again. He will turn 34 in March. He had a solid batting line of .260\/.324\/.405 this year but his defensive grades were poor.<\/p>\n

There will be lots of obstacles to finding deals for any of these players but the Rangers will try. With Seager, they have extra motivation, as prospect Sebastian Walcott<\/a> is knocking on the door. A Seager trade could open the shortstop position for Walcott while also freeing up cash for other pursuits. They could also try to trade for a player with a comparable contract but one who plays a position of greater need, like they did when flipping Marcus Semien<\/a> to the Mets for Nimmo.<\/p>\n

There are other players they could look to move, ones who don\u2019t have no-trade protection, but the cost savings there wouldn\u2019t be as significant. MacKenzie Gore<\/a> is an impending free agent and could perhaps be put on the trade block. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz<\/a> projects him for an arbitration salary of $8.7MM. Trading him would save the Rangers a bit of money but would open a hole in the rotation. Replacing him by signing a free agent of comparable talent would cost more than that. Trading Gore would also be selling a bit low after the Rangers gave up a hefty package of prospects to get him last offseason, before he posted a lackluster 4.58 ERA.<\/p>\n

Jake Burger<\/a> is projected to make $6.9MM next year but won\u2019t have massive value as a power-only first baseman. Josh Jung<\/a> could be put out there but getting rid of his $5.2MM projected salary wouldn\u2019t lead to huge savings and would open up a hole at third base.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all a tricky balancing act as the Rangers look to weigh several things. The 2026 club wasn\u2019t good enough and could use some upgrades in center field, behind the plate and in the bullpen. Trading established players could save money but would also open up new holes. Even if they do free up some cash, this offseason\u2019s free agent class is a bit on the weaker side, making it harder for a club to solve problems via spending.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young met this week with members of the media, including Evan Grant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,226,384,403,394],"class_list":["post-845352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-brandon-nimmo","tag-corey-seager","tag-jacob-degrom","tag-nathan-eovaldi"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117557310475931113","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}