The Texas Rangers spent the 2026 season one game away from the top of the American League West, but that near miss still left them exactly where they didn’t want to be: out of the playoffs for a third straight year.
President of baseball operations Chris Young didn’t try to dress it up when he looked back on the year. Texas finished 80-82, and with just two more wins somewhere along the way, the division could have been theirs.
Maybe the postseason would have gone nowhere from there - the Houston Astros were knocked out by the Chicago White Sox in two games in the AL wild card series - but the Rangers still missed the first step. And in baseball, that’s the one that matters.
Now the offseason is coming fast, with Young and the front office expected to have their plan in place by November. The clearest lesson from this season is also the simplest: Texas can’t keep spending big on older players and expecting a different result.
“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.”
That sounds like a team that knows the problem. The Rangers have leaned heavily into veteran contracts over the past five years, and the bill is coming due - not just in dollars, but in roster flexibility. Their projected 2027 payroll is already tied up in four players who will make more than $20 million next year and are older than 30.
Three of those contracts belong to players Texas brought in itself: Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Corey Seager. Those moves came when the Rangers were chasing a title, and in fairness, two of them helped deliver one. Eovaldi and Seager were part of the 2023 World Series team, while deGrom was sidelined by injury and watched from the outside.
But the age curve is now impossible to ignore. deGrom is 38, Eovaldi is 36 and Seager is 32, and the trio will make more than $90 million combined. deGrom and Eovaldi are both free agents after 2027, while Seager still has four years left on his deal.
With Major League Baseball facing the possibility of a lengthy work stoppage and major changes to its financial system, another big free-agent bet on a player over 30 would be the wrong move for Texas. Young’s comments pointed in the right direction. The challenge now is resisting the temptation to do what the Rangers have done before.
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Rangers May Need One Uncomfortable Move To Fix This Roster
Chris Young is looking at a Rangers roster that has lost its way a bit after three straight postseason misses, and the next fix may not be a comfortable one. Texas already knows it needs more balance, with a starting center fielder and a first baseman high on the list, while the pitching plan also points toward bringing back veteran arms to help steady young starters Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker.
The harder question is how to create room for all of that without simply layering more payroll onto a club that still needs flexibility and a younger core. One path being considered is moving one of the four high-paid players, and Corey Seager stands out as the likeliest trade candidate, a sign of how serious the Rangers may need to get if they want to reshape the roster rather than just patch it. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Have Three Offseason Answers That Could Reshape The AL West
The Rangers are already being pushed to think a few steps ahead, and the 2027 offseason has the look of a possible pivot point. With spending plans still uncertain and roster choices looming, the front office could have a real chance to address multiple needs at once if it decides to get aggressive in the market.
Lane Thomas, Adrian Morejon and Shota Imanaga all surface as names worth watching because each would fill a different kind of gap, from lineup help to bullpen depth to rotation stability. None of it matters, of course, if Texas decides to stay cautious, which is what makes the next round of roster decisions so important for how the AL West race could look down the line. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Cannot Afford To Repeat This Roster-Building Mistake
The Rangers spent too much of the 2026 season trying to patch holes on the fly, and president of baseball operations Chris Young acknowledged the root problem was deeper than any one injury or slump. Texas did not create enough genuine competition for roster spots, which left the club with too few alternatives when players failed to perform and made the day-to-day decision-making more difficult than it should have been.
Chris Young said the front office has to correct that in the 2027 offseason by adding players who can actually push for starting jobs, not just fill out the depth chart. For a team that wants to avoid another season of thin margins and limited fallback plans, the lesson is clear: better depth is not a luxury, it is part of the baseline for building a more resilient roster. [Read more 🡒]