The Texas Rangers have already heard the message from Chris Young: change is coming.
At his end-of-season press conference last week, the president of baseball operations laid out exactly what the club is chasing next.
“We need to get younger,” he said. “We need to get more athletic. We need to get more dynamic, and those are going to be off-season goals of ours.”
That vision makes it pretty clear the Rangers are not going to be shaped around Corey Seager, Jacob deGrom or Nathan Eovaldi, the older core that has carried so much of the load. It also points away from Brandon Nimmo as a centerpiece. So who does fit?
Ezequiel Duran does.
It may not be the obvious answer, but if the Rangers are looking for a player whose style matches the direction Young described, Duran is the one who stands out. Building around him - more specifically, building in his image - is the path Texas should be aiming for in 2027.
Duran’s season was the kind that changes how a player is viewed. He settled into the role of super-utility man and put together a year that could land him both the American League Silver Slugger and Gold Glove at utility player.
At the plate, he hit .260/.320/.419 with 17 home runs and 83 RBI. He also set career highs in home runs, RBI and stolen bases, finishing with 11.
The workload was real, too. Duran played 153 games, a career best, helped in part by injuries to Josh Smith, Josh Jung and Corey Seager.
He handled seven different positions and did it with real competence, including center field and right field, two spots he had barely touched before this season. In a lot of those games, he played at a Gold Glove level.
What makes Duran such a natural fit for what Texas says it wants is that he checks every box. He’s younger than most of the roster.
He brings athleticism. He can move around the diamond.
And he’s shown he can produce with power and with average. Back in 2023, when Seager was sidelined, he flashed what he could do in a smaller role at a set position, batting .300 in May.
This year, he took the next step and showed he can create value anywhere, any day.
There’s also the durability factor, and that matters. If this same question had been asked after the 2023 season, Josh Jung might have been the answer.
Jung had a strong 2026 in a lot of ways, but injury has remained the constant. He missed more than a month this year, and even in the World Series season he was out nearly two months with a fractured thumb.
That’s why Duran looks like the solution for Texas, at least when it comes to roster construction. The Rangers don’t need a lineup full of utility types. What they do need is more players who bring Duran’s traits to everyday jobs.
If they manage that this offseason, they should end up a better team.
In Other News...
Rangers Future Is Taking Shape And Some Familiar Names May Not Fit
The Rangers next roster reset is starting to come into focus, and it sounds a lot like a shift in identity as much as a change in personnel. Chris Young has made it clear the club wants to lean into younger, more athletic players and back away from older veterans whose versatility has faded and whose salaries leave less room to maneuver. For a team trying to chart its next winning core, that means the conversation is no longer just about who produced last season, but who fits the shape of what comes next.
Cody Freeman, Justin Foscue and Wyatt Langford are the kinds of players who fit that blueprint, giving Texas a trio of younger names to build around as the roster takes on a different look. On the other side of the ledger, familiar veterans such as Joc Pederson and Corey Seager are part of the broader question facing the front office, along with another unnamed player whose place is less certain as the Rangers weigh age, cost and performance. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Face One Big Offseason Question Before Free Agency Opens
Chris Young is heading into the winter with one of the most important questions in front of the Rangers still unanswered: how much room will there be to spend. The president of baseball operations said he does not yet know the teams budget for 2027 and needs to sit down with ownership to sort that out, a reminder that the clubs offseason plans will be shaped as much by finances as by baseball needs.
The current estimate for Texas 26-man opening day payroll in 2027, based on existing contracts, arbitration projections and minimum salaries, sits around $171.13 million before benefits and dead money are added. There is also another layer to consider, since the next collective bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association will help determine what free agency spending looks like once it is ratified, leaving the Rangers waiting on both internal and league-wide answers before the market fully opens. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers May Need One Painful Trade To Fix This Roster
The Rangers spent last offseason swinging for impact, including the Marcus Semien deal with the Mets for Brandon Nimmo and the prospect-heavy swap that brought MacKenzie Gore to Texas. Even with those aggressive moves, the club still came up short of the playoffs, leaving the front office with a familiar offseason problem: a roster that has talent, but not enough obvious room to fix everything at once.
Payroll commitments are already weighing on the picture, which is why the conversation is starting to drift toward tougher possibilities involving core players. Corey Seager is among the names that could theoretically be moved if Texas decides it needs both roster flexibility and a different construction around its biggest contracts, and the Braves have been mentioned as a possible trade partner. It is the kind of scenario that would sting, but for a team trying to reset its path, it may be the sort of painful decision that gets discussed instead of dismissed. [Read more 🡒]