ARLINGTON -- The catching position was maybe the Rangers’ most pressing need of the offseason.
That was rectified on Monday night, when the club announced it signed free-agent catcher Danny Jansen for two years with a mutual option for 2028. The deal is worth $14.5 million, a source told MLB.com.
The team also announced a one-year deal with lefty reliever Tyler Alexander and, on Tuesday, made official its one-year deal with right-handed reliever Alexis Díaz. Alexander's contract is for $1.125 million with another $1.125 million available in incentives, according to MLB Network insider Jon Heyman.
The Rangers have needed another catcher alongside veteran Kyle Higashioka since Jonah Heim was non-tendered last month. Jansen was one of the better backstops on the market. President of baseball operations Chris Young said that Texas had been interested in Jansen over the last few years, and even tried to trade for him at multiple points.
Since making his MLB debut in 2018, Jansen has collected 11.5 bWAR, the ninth-highest among primary catchers in that span. Since '21, Jansen is one of just seven primary catchers in MLB to log at least four seasons with an OPS+ greater than 100 ('21-23, '25).
Jansen’s .720 OPS in 2025 was better than any catcher the Rangers have had over the past two seasons.
“I think he's a great fit for our team,” Young said. “We knew we needed to try to upgrade that position and find somebody that would complement Higgy. We think he's the perfect fit from a person, from a leader, his relationships with his pitchers, just the winning personality that he brings. We think that it'll really be a good boost to our group. It'll complement Kyle Higashioka. We feel like the two of them behind the plate together will make a great tandem.”
Besides being the answer to a really cool trivia question -- Who was the first MLB player to play for both teams in the same game? -- Jansen has showcased decent pop and good blocking skills throughout his eight-year career.
He hit 14 homers last season, which he split between the Rays and the Brewers, and he has bopped double-digit dingers in four of the past five non-shortened seasons. The only outlier in that group is 2024, when Jansen had nine homers while playing for the two teams he played for in that link above -- the Blue Jays and Red Sox. He broke into the Majors with Toronto in 2018.
It’s no secret what Jansen is trying to do when he’s at the plate: pull the ball in the air whenever possible. Jansen’s 71.7% fly-ball rate tied for third in MLB among all players with at least 100 batted balls, trailing only the Mariners’ Cal Raleigh and the Tigers’ Spencer Torkelson. And he pulled those airballs 32.7% of the time, the fifth-highest rate among players with at least 100 batted balls.
Although Jansen’s pitch-framing and ability to throw runners out have rarely graded out well, he is adept at keeping balls in front of him. He recorded 14 blocks above average in 2025, second best in the big leagues. His 72 blocks above average since the start of 2019 are unsurpassed.
While the 30-year-old has often shared time behind the dish, he hasn’t cleared the 100-games-played mark since 2019 (107 games), in part because he has made seven trips to the injured list since the start of 2021. However, Jansen was able to avoid the IL last season and appeared in 98 games between Tampa Bay and Milwaukee. He batted .215 with a .720 OPS.
While Jansen adds value behind the plate, the pair of relievers no doubt raise the floor of the bullpen.
In 2025, the Rangers nearly built a bullpen from scratch with names like Hoby Milner, Shawn Armstrong, Jacob Webb, Chris Martin and Luke Jackson, all veterans on one-year deals. That led to a 3.62 ERA, good for fifth in the Majors.
“Last year, we wanted to get back to dominating the strike zone, so we targeted pitchers with a historical track record of throwing strikes and attacking the strike zone,” general manager Ross Fenstermaker said at the Winter Meetings. “I think it's going to be much of the same going forward. But that is kind of a fundamental truth and a through point for us in terms of our pitching philosophy.”
Díaz and Alexander fit that exact mold.
Díaz was an All-Star in 2023 and posted a 3.99 ERA in ‘24. He struggled to an 8.15 ERA across three teams in ‘25, though he and Alexander are exactly the type of relievers the Rangers have had success with in the past.
Alexander is an alumnus of both Carroll (Southlake, Texas) High School and TCU, both miles from Globe Life Field in Arlington. He has a career 4.63 ERA across seven years and four big league teams.
The Rangers are in a perfect position to get the most out of both of those pitchers out of the bullpen.
“Strikes are valued in the game,” Fenstermaker added. "Stuff is valued in the game. I don't think that we're necessarily looking for bargains, by any means. We're looking for the right focused fits for the Texas Rangers. Our pitching group does a tremendous job of identifying opportunities for us to optimize and getting the most out of our pitchers.”