The Rangers didn’t make much noise at the trade deadline, but they did leave themselves a fresh list of names to circle this offseason.
Texas was connected to several bigger targets in July, yet the actual deadline haul was modest. The club added catcher Logan O'Hoppe and right-hander Chase Silseth from the Los Angeles Angels for minor-league infielder Angel Arredondo, then landed left-hander Adam Macko from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for utilityman Josh Smith and right-hander Josh Stephan.
Now the front office gets another shot to chase the players it was tied to last summer, and a few of those options still make sense for the roster.
One name that keeps coming back is Baltimore Orioles left-hander Trevor Rogers. In July, ESPN's Jeff Passan called Rogers the Rangers' "best match" in a deadline deal.
Rogers is headed for unrestricted free agency after the season, and the appeal is easy to see: even with Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, MacKenzie Gore, Jack Leiter, and Kumar Rocker in place, Texas can’t assume the rotation will stay healthy and humming for six straight months. Rogers would give the Rangers another proven arm and add real competition for the back end of the rotation.
He’s 29 in November and put up a 4.03 ERA with 157 strikeouts across 169 2/3 innings in 2026. The year before, he posted a 1.81 ERA over 109 2/3 innings in 18 starts, the best season of his career. Baltimore will likely extend the qualifying offer, which would cost Texas a draft pick if the Rangers signed him.
Another intriguing name is Colorado Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman. Colorado was one of the clubs expected to hear plenty of calls on Goodman last summer, but the Rockies kept him.
That likely won’t stop teams from checking in again, and Texas should be among the interested parties. Goodman is under team control through 2029, so he won’t come cheap.
The 27-year-old is coming off back-to-back All-Star seasons and has crushed pitching over the last two years, hitting .262/.317/.525 with a 115 wRC+, along with 6.0 fWAR, 72 home runs, and 179 RBI. The Rangers already have Logan O'Hoppe and Danny Jansen under contract for next year, but that doesn’t mean they should sit out on a player who is described as arguably the sport's best-hitting catcher.
If Goodman proves too difficult to land, another catcher to keep on the board is Ryan Jeffers. He’s set to hit free agency, and like Rogers, he’ll likely be attached to a qualifying offer, which would cost Texas draft-pick compensation if he signs there.
Passan and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN linked the Rangers to Jeffers in June, and the numbers explain why. Jeffers hit .256/.353/.461 with a 128 wRC+, 2.6 fWAR, 14 home runs, and 56 RBI in 2026, though he was limited to 92 games after a left hamate bone fracture.
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A move like this would not be about short-term noise so much as how Texas wants to build toward 2027 and beyond, which is where the stakes get clearer for Chris Young and his staff. Any decision involving Jung would say plenty about the organizations direction, and the possibility of using that type of trade to reshape the lineup is the kind of swing that could define how the Rangers are judged in the years ahead. [Read more 🡒]