The Texas Rangers have bigger problems than one free agent, but Cal Quantrill looks like the kind of arm they can’t afford to lose.
After a disappointing 2026 season, the Rangers are headed into another offseason with real pressure on the front office. The offense is the obvious place to start, and it needs help. But the rotation also had enough inconsistency that retaining the one starter who gave them steady production should be high on the list.
That starter was Quantrill.
The 31-year-old arrived with the Rangers and eventually moved from the bullpen into a rotation role when the need became too obvious to ignore. He wasn’t handed much at the start, and his first start didn’t come until June 23 - even then, it was as an opener, not a full-on turn through the rotation. Still, once the opportunity opened up, he took it and kept building from there.
By July 10, Quantrill had already delivered his first quality start of the season, doing it against the Houston Astros. From there, he settled in and became the most reliable arm Texas had.
That matters because the rest of the group never really gave the Rangers a true anchor. Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, MacKenzie Gore, Kumar Rocker, and Jack Leiter were the main pieces in the rotation, but none of them finished with an ERA under 4.00. There were flashes, sure, but not the kind of steady presence Texas could lean on every time out.
Quantrill was the exception, and he only got stronger as the season wore on.
In August, he put together a 1.45 ERA over 31 innings. He also posted a 0.83 ERA while holding hitters under .200 at the plate. Then came September, when he made four appearances and allowed only five earned runs before a right lat strain ended his year.
For a team trying to find any kind of stability on the mound, that kind of stretch stands out. And with deGrom, Eovaldi, Gore, Rocker, and Leiter all expected back, Texas still doesn’t have a clear ace. Quantrill may not have been the headline name when the season began, but he looked like the closest thing the Rangers had to one.
The offense still needs work, and badly. But if Texas lets Quantrill walk, that would be a mistake.
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For a team that already has significant payroll commitments on the books for 2027, the near-term picture still could leave room to operate, with more than $100 million potentially available under the competitive balance tax threshold depending on player options and arbitration outcomes. Even so, how aggressively Texas can act may come down to ownership approval and the broader labor climate between MLB owners and the Players Association, which gives this offseason a different kind of uncertainty than a simple shopping list. [Read more 🡒]