Biggest Free-Agent Mistake the Texas Rangers Must Avoid This Winter

The Texas Rangers cannot do this if they hope to have an offseason that leads to success in 2027.

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jacob deGrom. Credit: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young's postmortem of the 2026 season was clear his team fell short of their stated goal of making the playoffs.

Texas didn't fall short my much. The Rangers finished 80-82 and one game behind the Houston Astros in the American League West. Had the Rangers won two more games somewhere during the season they would have won the division.

Whether Texas would have gotten far in the postseason is debatable. The Astros ended up losing their AL wild card series to the Chicago White Sox in two games. But to win a championship a team must make the playoffs. The Rangers fell short of the postseason for the third straight year.

Young and the Rangers are expected to have their course plotted for the offseason by November. Here's hoping the Rangers don't make this mistake during free agency.

The Rangers Can’t Make this Free-Agent Mistake

Texas Rangers general manager Chris Young. Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

The mistake the Rangers can't make is a simple one and while Young didn't speak directly to it earlier this week, his goals for next year do — the Rangers can't spend money on aging talent anymore.

“It's going to be a very important goal of ours to really address the makeup of this team in terms of health, reliability, dependability,” Young said on Monday. “We need to get younger. We need to get more athletic. We need to get more dynamic, and those are going to be off-season goals of ours.”

The biggest mistake the Rangers could make would be to sign another veteran to a multi-year, big money contract. The Rangers have done plenty of that the past five years and they're starting to pay for it. And not just financially.

The Rangers have one of the oldest teams in baseball. A considerable portion of their projected 2027 payroll is wrapped up in four players that will make more than $20 million next year and are over the age of 30. Three of them — pitchers Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi, along with shortstop Corey Seager — were signed by the Rangers.

All three were signed at a time when Texas was chasing the pieces it needed to win a championship. Eovaldi and Seager helped the Rangers clinch their first World Series title in 2023 while deGrom had to watch after suffering an injury.

Now, they’re an aging core. deGrom is 38, Eovaldi is 36 and Seager is 32. Together they’ll make more than $90 million. deGrom and Eovaldi are free agents after 2027, but Seager has four more years on his deal.

At a time when Major League Baseball is set to go through a potentially lengthy work stoppage and sweeping change to its financial system, committing big money to free agents over the age of 30 makes no sense for the Rangers. It seems Young recognizes that as Texas heads into the offseason. The key is avoiding temptation and sticking to the goal, lest the Rangers end up with another aging piece of the puzzle.