The Texas Rangers can’t point to payroll and call it the whole problem.
Yes, the money has come down. Texas ranked fourth in MLB payroll in 2023 at $251,332,754, then dropped to 13th this year at $191,262,798.
And yes, the results have cratered with it: the Rangers missed the playoffs for the third straight season and have been out of the postseason in nine of the past 10 years. The lone bright spot in that stretch was the 2023 World Series title, when they actually got in.
But the current playoff picture says spending more isn’t some magic fix. As of Saturday morning, four of the five teams still alive in the postseason race ranked 19th or lower in payroll.
The Brewers, now NLCS bound, sit 19th at $146,206,320. The White Sox, currently in the ALDS, are 24th at $103,330,141.
The Rays, ALCS bound, are 28th at $95,615,469. And the Guardians, also in the ALDS, are dead last at 30th with a payroll of $74,459,014.
The Dodgers are the obvious exception. They rank second at $339,319,244 and will face Milwaukee in the NLCS.
But even the richest club in the sport doesn’t make the “spend big and win” argument airtight. The Mets were first at $346,736,805 and finished last in the NL East at 74-88.
The Yankees, with a $308,336,780 payroll, were swept out of the ALDS by Tampa Bay.
So, would the Rangers be better with more money? Sure. But the source of the problem runs deeper than the checkbook.
Texas has gotten too little from too many of its recent moves. Jake Burger has been only average since arriving.
Evan Carter has fallen off hard after his breakout rookie year in 2023. Joc Pederson had a decent 2026 season, but overall has been a bust for the Rangers.
The pitching side hasn’t held up either. Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker have not reached the level Texas expected.
MacKenzie Gore hasn’t turned into the pitcher the Rangers wanted after last offseason’s acquisition. And outside of Jacob Latz and a few others, the bullpen has been shaky for much of the last couple of seasons.
The payroll is also tied up in expensive commitments that limit flexibility. Corey Seager takes up a huge portion of the budget, and Brandon Nimmo is another major expense after Texas acquired him from the Mets last offseason for second baseman Marcus Semien.
Seager, Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi all have no-trade clauses, and that has made the roster harder to maneuver. The issue is especially tricky with Seager and deGrom because of their injury histories, while Eovaldi is not the sort of player you usually expect to carry that kind of protection. Those deals have left Texas boxed in, even with some interest around the league in those players.
There’s also the matter of how the organization has handled its assets. Chris Young sent five top-30 prospects to get MacKenzie Gore.
At the time, the trade market for controllable starting pitching favored sellers. The bigger question isn’t just the prospects themselves, but what else those pieces could have been used for - and whether they might have landed a more impactful player at a different position.
The Rangers can’t just run this back and expect a different result. More spending would help, but that doesn’t appear to be the answer in the near term. If Texas wants to follow the model of clubs like the Rays, Brewers, White Sox and Guardians, it has to develop players better and manage its assets with a lot more precision.
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