ARLINGTON -- Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young said last week that he expects the club’s 2027 payroll to look similar to how it did in ‘26. So what does that mean for this week's GM Meetings in Las Vegas?
In short, nothing. The Rangers, like many teams, will spend the week gathering intel on various free agent and trade targets. That may or may not result in an immediate move towards more.
Young always says the front office will look for any way to improve the big league club. So here’s a look at the Rangers' roster entering this week’s GM Meetings in Las Vegas:
Starting pitching
Co-aces Jacob deGrom (earliest possible free agency after 2027) and Nathan Eovaldi (free agent after 2027) are both under long-term deals, but MacKenzie Gore, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker remain in their arbitration or pre-arbitration years in 2027.
The possibility remains that the Rangers will explore ways to trade their big-money players -- which include deGrom and Eovaldi -- but Young always says you can never have too much starting pitching. That thinking will remain, whether or not the Rangers trade the aces. The club has succeeded in bringing in veteran pitchers as depth pieces and having them make major contributions over the last few years, including Michael Lorenzen in 2024, Patrick Corbin in ‘25 and Cal Quantrill in ‘26. That remains a piece of the puzzle.
Catcher
Catcher is probably the position where the Rangers are most in need of depth. With Kyle Higashioka's mutual options having been declined, Texas has just Danny Jansen and Logan O’Hoppe on the roster entering 2027.
Jansen is an experienced catcher, and was much better in the second half, with a .257/.329/.500 slash line in 26 games after returning from the injured list Aug. 18 following a right forearm strain. But O’Hoppe didn’t catch a single game at the big league level after joining the club in a Trade Deadline deal with the Angels.
“We got to catch him a lot at Triple-A when he first came over,” Young said of O’Hoppe. “When we brought him to the big leagues, we didn't get to see him behind the plate as much as we had hoped. And so I think there's still some things that we need to continue to improve in terms of his framing. But his work ethic is second to none. He cares immensely. We know he's committed to the plan that we put in place when we acquired him.”
That said, neither Jansen nor O’Hoppe is particularly strong on the offensive or defensive end, and it would behoove the Rangers to get another backstop to make things competitive behind the plate, at the very least.
Infield
The question mark with the infield remains in star shortstop Corey Seager and what the Rangers plan to do with him and his contract. Like deGrom and Eovaldi, he’s one of the three highest-paid players on the team. It stands to reason that he could potentially be moved to make room in the budget for other areas on the roster.
Elsewhere on the infield, the corners are occupied by first baseman Jake Burger and 2023 All-Star third baseman Josh Jung. Second base remains a fluid situation following Marcus Semien’s departure. The position was occupied by utility star Ezequiel Duran down the stretch, though Justin Foscue also played a decent second base after being recalled from Round Rock midseason.
“The more I script it right now, the less it'll go according to that script as we go through the winter,” Young said. “I think the best thing we can do is to build a deep roster that has versatility. Some of that speaks to why we need to get younger, why we need to become more athletic and more dynamic, and have some of that versatility that we can spread across multiple positions. It's going to be important for us to execute that this winter.”
Outfield
The Rangers were already thrown a curveball early in the offseason, when center fielder Evan Carter underwent right hip surgery that will almost definitely keep him down for the start of the regular season.
With Wyatt Langford and Brandon Nimmo manning the corner for now, the Rangers will be on the market for a center fielder, as well as outfield depth this winter, something that wasn’t particularly in the cards until now.
Young said that will be a “primary focus.”
Relief pitching
For the third offseason in a row, Young and the front office will have to rebuild a bullpen basically from scratch. The holdovers from 2026 include All-Star Jacob Latz at closer, as well as Robert Garcia, Chase Silseth and a group of rookies that rotated in and out of the big leagues over the course of the season.
The Rangers have been successful in this area in recent years, including veteran names like Kirby Yates and David Robertson (2024), Hoby Milner and Shawn Armstrong (2025) and Tyler Alexander and Jakob Junis (2026).
They’ll try to do that again for 2027.
“That's a market that we've done relatively well,” Young affirmed. “Some of them are buy-low signs and guys that have really stepped up and had great seasons. There are a lot of different ways to do it, and I can't say exactly what path we'll be going down or what market we'll be playing in -- whether it's via trade, free agency -- but I do know that there is great opportunity within our bullpen.
“We're going to be active. I can't tell you what into the market or within trading what that may look like, but I do know our pro personnel group, our pro scouting department, our R&D group have done a great job of really identifying certain types of pitchers, certain types of traits, and our pitching group has done a very good job of maximizing those traits to get the best out of them.”