The Texas Rangers head into the winter with a problem that doesn’t come with a simple fix, and it centers on Corey Seager.
This is not a situation where the club is dealing with a player they can just let walk. Seager is under team control, and that makes him the most important contract decision on the board for a Rangers team that still doesn’t know what its financial picture will look like going into 2027. That uncertainty hangs over everything.
Seager’s name was already in the rumor mill during the 2025-2026 offseason, when there were whispers that the Rangers were open to moving his contract. Those conversations figure to pick up again now, especially after his age and his production dipped in 2026.
Even in a down year, Seager still brought value. He remained a strong defender and one of the biggest power threats in the lineup. But the Rangers have to think beyond what he still is and ask whether he still fits where they’re trying to go.
The 2026 season wasn’t close to his best. Seager hit .227 with 20 home runs and a .736 OPS. Those are respectable numbers, but they don’t match the level he produced earlier in the life of the contract, and the injuries he’s dealt with in recent seasons have only added to the concern.
The financial side is where this gets even tougher. Seager is due $31 million in each of the next five seasons, and the Rangers do not have the kind of financial flexibility that lets them absorb a deal like that without consequences. They can’t keep pouring money into a spot that may become a drag on the roster.
That doesn’t mean Texas can just dump him. If the Rangers decide to move him, they can expect a meaningful return, but they’ll almost certainly have to eat some money to make it happen.
The setup could resemble the Giancarlo Stanton trade to New York. In that deal, the Marlins took back Starlin Castro while the Yankees paid down most of the contract, and then Miami continued paying down $10 million in the final two seasons. It was still real money on the Marlins’ end, but it created room to spend elsewhere.
That kind of arrangement would make sense for Texas too. The better the prospect package they want back, the more money they’ll likely need to absorb.
And while the Rangers do not absolutely have to move Seager, the case for doing it is strong. One more complication: he now has 10-5 rights. With 10 years of service time and five years with the Rangers, he can block any trade, which narrows the list of possible destinations and could make the process even harder.
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