Where Rangers Should Stand on Payroll When They Enter Free Agency

How much can the Texas Rangers spend this offseason? To figure it out, one has to figure out where they’ll stand when free agency begins.

Texas Rangers General Manager Chris Young. Credit:Raymond Carlin III-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young said last week that he's not sure what his budget will look like for 2027.

Young said he would need to meet with team ownership to determine what that number would be, but there are other factors at play.

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association are currently negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement. The current deal expires on Dec. 1 and if it does, as most expect, the owners will lock the players out and there will be a work stoppage until there's an agreement.

The new CBA will have a direct impact on what Young will be able to do in free agency after it’s agreed to and ratified. But free agency begins in early November. So he has runway to make some moves before the expected work stoppage.

To know what he can spend, he needs to know where he is. Below we looked at the Rangers in three major categories of payroll to determine what their 26-man opening day roster payroll would look like without any additional moves. Call it a starting point.

Veteran Contracts

Texas Rangers right fielder Brandon Nimmo. Credit: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Rangers are expected to have five veteran contracts. Those belong to shortstop Corey Seager, outfielder Brandon Nimmo, catcher Danny Jansen, pitcher Jacob deGrom and pitcher Nathan Eovaldi. Combined the five will make $115.5 million in cash, per Spotrac. The tax hit for the five deals will be $122 million, which has to do with bonuses paid to Seager and Eovaldi up front. The tax hit is more important to owner Ray Davis, as he doesn’t want to pay into the competitive balance tax system.

The Rangers have three players that have mutual options on their contracts — outfielder Joc Peterson, catcher Kyle Higashioka and pitcher Jakob Junis. The option must be triggered by both parties. Combined the trio would make $30 million if the option was triggered. However, it's likely the Rangers won't trigger it for Peterson and Higashioka. It's possible they could trigger Junis’ option as it is only $4 million.

If the Rangers don’t trigger any of them, they still owe Higashioka $1 million and Junis $1.25 million in buyout money, which goes under dead money for 2027 but is still counted toward any CBT. If Texas does what is expected, then the tax figure goes up to $124.25 million.

Arbitration

Texas Rangers catcher Ezequiel Duran. Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The next category is salary arbitration. These are players that have anywhere from three to five years of service time accumulated and are eligible to go to the arbitration table with the Rangers to negotiate their salary. The Rangers have not gone to arbitration with a player since 2000, the longest streak in Major League Baseball.

Earlier this month, MLB Trade Rumors published its arbitration salary projections for 2027. The Rangers have 10 players eligible, including a pair of what are called “super-two” players. The list below includes the player, their service time and their projected salary:

MacKenzie Gore (5.000): $8.7 million

Jake Burger (4.127): $6.9 million

Ezequiel Duran (4.053): $4 million

Josh Jung (4.027): $5.2 million

Logan O’Hoppe (3.171): $3.1 million

Cody Bradford (3.086): $1.3 million

Robert Garcia (3.086): $1.1 million

Wyatt Langford (3.000): $3.3 million

Evan Carter (2.170): $1.7 million

Jacob Latz (2.170): $3 million

The total is $38.3 million. Combined with the money already accumulated toward the CBT the Rangers would have $162.55 million in payroll before free agency. But there’s a third bucket.

Pre-Arbitration Players

Texas Rangers second baseman Cameron Cauley. Credit: David Richard-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Above are 15 players on a 26-man opening day roster. The other 11 spots, barring free agent signings, would be taken up by players that have less than three years of service experience and are not eligible for arbitration. Those players make the league minimum. With negotiations going on for a new CBA, this number is tricky. It could go up. But it won’t go down.

The league minimum for 2026 was $780,000. Multiply that by 11 players and you get $8.58 million. But that number is expected to go up. But add the current minimum to the accumulated payroll and the Rangers would have $171.13 million committed to player salaries on opening day for 2027. That doesn't include player benefits, dead money and any other salary commitments the Rangers must make.

That would represent a rough starting point for Young and his staff to begin putting together the rest of the team.