The Texas Rangers had one of the quietest trade deadlines of any major league team this year. Despite being in the playoff hunt in a very mediocre American League (and particularly, a very mediocre American League West), and having clear needs to be addressed (the exact number depending on whether you want to count “the bullpen” as one need or “several relievers for the bullpen” as several needs), the Rangers largely stood pat.
Here’s the list of the deadline moves:
July 29 — Traded low-A infielder Angel Arredondo to the Angels for catcher Logan O’Hoppe (who was sent to AAA) and righthanded reliever Chase Silseth (who was anointed the Rangers’ new 8th inning guy)
August 3 — Traded Opening Day second baseman turned AAA utility guy Josh Smith and AAA righthanded pitcher Josh Stephan to the Blue Jays for minor league lefthanded reliever Adam Macko (who was sent to AAA)
If you want to be more generous in your definition of “deadline moves” you can include the June 30 trade of high-A catcher Ben Hartl to the Chicago White Sox for righthanded reliever Ben Peoples, who was toiling in AAA for the Pale Hose and was going to exercise an opt out in his contract and become a free agent, and presumably sign a major league deal with someone (maybe the Rangers, maybe not), were he not added to a 40 man roster at that point. Even so, it doesn’t really change the overall analysis, and conclusion, that the Rangers made few moves, and the ones they made were minor in nature.
It was fairly out of character for an organization that moved aggressively as buyers at the deadline in both 2023 and 2025, and made a handful of smaller moves in 2024 when the team was more on the fringes of the race, as well as being active in the offseason the past several years. Chris Young would probably agree with you, based on his comments on July 28 of this year, when asked about the team’s deadline posture:
Have you guys decided how aggressive you want to be at the deadline or are this week’s games going to have an impact on that mindset?
Young: So I’d say we want to always be super aggressive. We want to go out and be the most aggressive team.
Young goes on to explain that it depends on the market, that stars are had to get and that depth pieces can be as well, that there’s a lot of ins and a lot of outs and a lot of strands to keep in his head, but that it was going to be a busy week for the team, and that they “try to stay engaged with every team and understand the market and understand what teams are trying to do, and who may become available, and then again make the best decisions in real time.”
When Young gave that interview, the Rangers were up 2 games in the American League West, were a game up on Cleveland, which held the third Wild Card spot, and were just a half-game behind Boston, who had the second Wild Card spot. They were beginning a tough six game road trip at Tampa and Houston, but they’d just won three of four against presumptive A.L. West favorites Seattle, and they seemed to be a very good place.
The next day, the Rangers pulled the trigger on the Anaheim trade, one that was widely heralded as a coup by Texas. Having beaten the Rays the day before in the series opener, they had just lost the middle game of the series to Tampa, but they were still in first place in the division and well-positioned as far as the Wild Card went.
The Rangers promptly lost the last game in Tampa and all three games in Houston, dropping the Rangers into second place in the division, 2.5 games out, and a game and a half back in the Wild Card race. Ken Rosenthal reported before that game that the Rangers’ deadline plans could, absurdly, depend on what happened in the Sunday finale in Houston, saying that with a loss “the Rangers could sell, perhaps even in a big way.”
Let’s take a step back and think about this.
The bullpen — the Achilles heel of the team all year — was the culprit in that Sunday game that everything supposedly hinged upon. After Brandon Nimmo had tied up the game in the top of the seventh with a solo homer, Tyler Alexander — who has been solid for the Rangers this year — came in for the seventh. Christian Walker smoked a double, then Alexander hit Taylor Trammell with a pitch. Jose Altuve hit a 5U grounder, bringing up righthanded hitting Cam Smith with runners and first and second and one out in a tie game.
I feel like managing a bullpen is the most difficult thing a manager has to do in-game — especially when the bullpen you are managing is nothing like the bullpen you were hoping you’d be managing at that point.
Let’s hop into the Wayback Machine, and go all the way back to six-plus months ago, when Evan Grant, in late January, made his initial 2026 Opening Day roster projection for the Texas Rangers. It was two months prior to Opening Day, it was too early to be taken too seriously, but it also gives us a pretty good sense of what the bullpen was expected to look like for 2026 heading into spring training:
Bullpen (8)
RHP Chris Martin, LHP Robert Garcia, RHP Jakob Junis, RHP Cole Winn, RHP Alexis Diaz, LHP Tyler Alexander, RHP Luis Curvelo, RHP Carter Baumler
Also contending: RHP Josh Sborz, RHP Marc Church, RHP Zak Kent, RHP Emiliano Teodo, LHP Austin Gomber
One could nit-pick in regards to the last couple of spots on the roster, but the first six definitely seemed set, and the projection wasn’t exactly controversial.
On the Sunday before the deadline, what was the status of the projected 2026 Rangers relievers?
Chris Martin — On another rehab assignment, and a day away from being DFA’d, having been hurt much of the year and terrible when he wasn’t hurt.
Robert Garcia — On the injured list since mid-April with a shoulder injury
Jakob Junis — Had pitched well all season! Also was placed on the injured list earlier that week, so wasn’t available in this game.
Cole Winn — Healthy, supposedly, having been on the injured list for a couple of weeks in late-May/early-June. Wildly inconsistent, having allowed 11 runs in 7 innings over a 7 game span in late June/early July, then having allowed just two runs over from early July to the beginning of August. 5.84 ERA and 4.50 ERA on the year.
Alexis Diaz — Supposed to be the team’s closer, but was so bad in spring training that he was DFA’d so the Rangers could add newly signed Jalen Beeks to the bullpen. Diaz went unclaimed, was sent to AAA, and has been there all year.
Jalen Beeks* — With an asterisk since he wasn’t in the roster projection, having been signed late in the spring to essentially replace Diaz because Diaz was terrible. Lost for the season in early June due to injury.
Tyler Alexander — He’s been good! And was the guy being replaced in the bottom of the 7th, so…
Luis Curvelo — Up and down guy who had been sent down the day before after giving up four runs in the opener against Houston.
Carter Baumler — Rule 5 guy who was available in the Rule 5 draft because he kept getting hurt. Got hurt after four appearances, went on the injured list the second week of the season, and is out for the year.
So two of the guys expected to be in the Opening Day bullpen heading into spring training were active then, and one of them had been, shall we say, less than reliable. Though in fairness, Jacob Latz was projected to be on the Opening Day roster, just in the rotation rather than the bullpen, so I guess we can say three were active if we include him.
As for the “also contending” list, one of them was designated for assignment barely a week into camp and lost on waivers, one was designated for assignment early in the season and was unclaimed, one was released in mid-May for being terrible in AAA, one has been in AAA all season not pitching well but being a 2023 organizational talisman, and one got called up mid-July because the bullpen needed a body, made his major league debut in a blowout loss, was bad, and was sent back to AAA the next day.
So who did Schumaker have to pick from on that fateful Sunday in H-Town?
Of the eight guys in the bullpen, Robby Ahlstrom and Tyler Alexander had been used.
Chase Silseth and Jacob Latz were being saved for the eighth and ninth, assuming the Rangers ever got a lead, or perhaps later, if the game remained tied and was potentially going into extra innings.
Nolan Kingham, who had never pitched pitched in the majors, had been signed out of the Mexican League earlier in the year by the Rangers because they were desperate for pitchers at Round Rock, and who hadn’t pitched in affiliated ball since 2023 prior to that, was available, having been called up the day before to replace Curvelo.
Peyton Gray, who had pitched the day before (as had Winn, Alexander and Silseth).
Ben Peoples, who had made his major league debut less than a month before, and who had a sparkling 2.70 ERA but an ugly 6.59 FIP in 10 appearances for the Rangers heading into the game.
So not a lot of great options. You could leave Alexander out there, but he’d given up two really hard hit balls and hit a batter.
You could go with Gray or Silseth, but you probably want to hold them for later in the game, potentially with the possibility of extra innings and the likelihood each would be limited somewhat in how deep they could go since they were pitching on back-to-back days. You also have the bottom of the lineup coming up, and would likely rather use one of them the next inning when the top of the order is due.
You’re not using Latz in that situation. You’re not asking Nolan Kingham to make his debut in that situation.
So you’re choosing between Winn, who had been pitching very well of late but did not have good numbers overall on the season, or Peoples, with barely any major league experience and problems throwing strikes.
Oh, and its not Schumaker making the decision anyway, since he got run between innings due to continuing an argument over a bad call in the top of the inning. Its presumably bench coach Luis Urueta. I’m guessing that’s who took over for Schumaker.
Anyway, Cam Smith hits a chopper in the hole on the left side. Neither Ezequiel Duran nor Corey Seager can reach it. Trammell heads home, where a good throw likely gets him. Wyatt Langford doesn’t make a good throw home, and it is 4-3 Astros. Cole Winn — who, whatever his other flaws in 2026, hadn’t been walking people — walks Nick Allen, who isn’t good offensively at anything, including drawing walks. Bases loaded, pinch hitter LaMonte Wade Jr. hits a weak chopper in no man’s land that Jake Burger fields but can’t record an out on because Winn doesn’t cover first, making it 5-3. Jeremy Pena strikes out for what would be the third out but for the uncovered base on the Wade chopper, which sets the stage for Yordan Alvarez to double in two runs and make it 7-3.
This confluence of events — bad call keeping Joc Pederson from batting in a tie game with the bases loaded, followed by middle relievers in the patchwork bullpen getting victimized by a combination of bad pitching and bad luck and bad defense — determines the future fate of the Rangers, we are told.
That chaotic Monday morning, trade deadline day — somehow just three days ago — we hear that the Rangers are listening on everyone, that no one is off-limits. The Rangers, we are told, have approached Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi — who have full no-trade clauses — as well as Corey Seager, who can block a trade to eight teams, if they will waive their no-trades. The Atlanta Braves, we are told, have interest in deGrom. A full on fire sale, briefly, seems possible.
There are differing opinions on what the Rangers’ real goal was on Monday — whether they were actively trying to dump everyone expensive, whether they were seeing what was out there, whether they were looking to dump some salaries in order to add some other salaries and rebalance the roster. Here’s what I said late Monday morning in the piece linked above:
I don’t think that the Rangers are going into full-blown rebuild mode. I don’t think Langford, Evan Carter, Kumar Rocker, Jack Leiter, or similar guys under team control for several years are going anywhere. My guess would be that the team either deals Pederson and maybe someone like Tyler Alexander or Jakob Junis, or else largely stands pay, maybe adding a controllable reliever for a nominal cost.
I thought at the time — and still do — that Young was doing what he indicated they were going to do in the quote earlier on — stay engaged with teams, see what was out there, and be prepared to make decisions in real time. I think that Chris Young did not, and does not, view 2027 as a rebuilding season. If, in a seller’s market, a team was going to make it worth their while to sell, to move guys for a premium return at the deadline such that they can essentially engage in arbitrage by making moves in the offseason to replace anyone traded off at a lower price, they were willing to do that. If not, well, they wouldn’t.
Jacob deGrom eliminated much of the drama by refusing to waive his no trade clause, stating that he came to Texas to win a title, that he believes in this team and wants to win here rather than chase with someone else. The Rangers reportedly told him that if he wanted to be dealt to Atlanta, they’d make that happen, and we can argue all day about whether that was the Rangers trying to get rid of deGrom and the roughly $40 million he’s owed from now to the end of 2027 or whether it was Texas giving a respected veteran in his late 30s, a future Hall of Famer, the agency to determine where he finishes out his contract, and no one on one side is likely to convince the other.
And so the Rangers largely stood pat, only adding a controllable reliever for a nominal cost. Adam Macko is in AAA, and may be someone who will add value to the pen going forward, or may be another Walter Pennington. To get him, they parted with a 24 year old righthanded pitchability-over-stuff starter who has not had success above A ball, and who would have become a free agent at season’s end when the Rangers didn’t add him to the 40 man roster, and Josh Smith, a guy who has gone from integral part of the team’s future to a salary dump.
Moving on from Smith was shocking but not really surprising. Smith was a spark plug for the team the previous two seasons, providing versatility and energy. He won a Silver Slugger in 2024 and was a legitimate candidate for the All Star team that year. The trade of Marcus Semien was made, in part, to open up a spot in the starting lineup for Smith.
But as we all know, Smith has a lengthy history of late season fades. He has a career 532 OPS in August and a career 551 OPS in September. He has missed time this year due to a glute strain as well as, flukily, a bout with viral meningitis, which hospitalized him and very well may be a contributing factor to his struggles since coming off the injured list. He hasn’t performed well in the majors or in AAA this year, despite being well into his prime — he turns 29 tomorrow. And even if he stays in the minors the rest of 2026, he has just two years of team control remaining beyond this year, and likely, due to how the arbitration process works, would likely receive a raise from this year’s $3.23 million salary if he sticks on a 40 man roster past the tender date.
The major criticism levied at the Rangers in regards to this year’s trade deadline is that they didn’t commit to either buying or selling, and were largely stuck in the mushy middle, where no one wants to be.
And that’s a fair criticism. But I want to look at how and why the Rangers ended up having done almost nothing when the bell range on Monday afternoon.
As I mentioned above, I do not believe that the front office believes that this team needs to go into a multi-year rebuild. I believe that the front office wants to be a playoff contender in 2027 — and more importantly, thinks the Rangers can be a playoff contender in 2027. Yes, they were listening, but Evan Grant reported just after noon on Monday that he was hearing “that the Rangers aren’t motivated sellers.” I am sure there are folks that think that if deGrom had been willing to waive his no-trade clause that would have been different, and we’d have seen wholesale sell-off, but I don’t think that’s the case.
So if the Rangers were going to be sellers, they were only going to be selling on guys who were not going to be around after 2026. The list of such players on the 2026 Rangers who would be worth parting with — either because of salary savings or because of the potential return — is very short. Joc Pederson, owed around $6 million for the rest of the season, would maybe have brought you an interesting prospect if you ate a bunch of the money he was owed. A team probably would have taken him and his contract off your hands if you were willing to give him away (and that might still happen, via the waiver process, if the Rangers are out of the mix in late August). But that would blow a hole in the lineup, for a team that still had a respectable — if not great — chance of making the playoffs, for minimal gain.
Other than Pederson, though, no one who is a free agent after 2026 is going to save you much money or get you much of a return. I mentioned Alexander and Junis as possibilities, as relievers are always in demand at the deadline and maybe you get a guy you like more than everyone else in exchange, but they aren’t bringing a big return (especially with Junis hurt) and aren’t going to save you money. You’re better off having them in your leaky bullpen down the stretch, both because you are still hoping to stumble into the playoffs and because you need guys to pitch competently out of the pen down the stretch even if you aren’t in the playoff hunt.
So the Rangers aren’t going to be sellers. Why not be buyers? All the arms that moved at the deadline, all the relievers who would be an upgrade over Nolan Kingham or who would allow you to option Ben Peoples or Peyton Gray to increase your depth, and on deadline day the Rangers couldn’t do better than a guy in AAA for the Blue Jays who is now in AAA for Texas? Why didn’t the Rangers get one of the rentals who are out there?
My guess is that there’s a couple of reasons. One is the state of the farm, much depleted due to win-now moves in 2023-25, a loss of second and third round draft picks in 2023 and 2024, and the, shall we say, questionable acquisition of MacKenzie Gore this past winter. The Rangers have a bottom five farm system — bottom ten, maybe, if you’re feeling generous — and are lacking in both quantity and quality as far as prospect capital goes.
But that is not the main reason the Rangers stood pat, I don’t think.
The main reason has to do with the men who own the Texas Rangers not wanting to spend the money necessary to add payroll.
Remember I mentioned Josh Smith and his $3.23 million salary earlier? A team that’s not hurting for 40 man roster spots, that has an infield laden with players with injury histories, is going to see Smith as useful depth. They aren’t going to move him, while in a playoff race, for a AAA reliever with little major league experience.
Not unless the pursestrings are being held very tight.
On July 28 — the same day Chris Young talked about always wanting to be super aggressive — Evan Grant wrote a column about potential bullpen targets. One of the sections dealt with relievers the Angels, clearly in sell mode at that point, could deal, one of which was Chase Silseth, who the Rangers ended up acquiring.
Another paragraph in that section, however, set off alarm bells with me:
As for Yates, he had a magical 2024 season for the Rangers and has served as Anaheim’s closer, but he’s got $1.7 million left on his deal for this year. That’s about $1.25 million more than either of the other two Angels. Davis would have to be willing to take on the money.
Let’s take a step back for a moment and remember…the Texas Rangers slashed payroll this past offseason. Their year-end 40 man roster payroll, per Cots, was over $240 million in 2023 and 2024, and $229 million in 2025, ranking sixth or seventh in the majors each of those three years. Their year end payroll for competitive balance tax purposes, which averages out salaries for players on long-term contracts and includes an identical amount from each team for player benefits and the pre-arbitration pool, was 9th last year, 5th in 2024 and 8th in 2023.
We don’t have the year end 2026 payroll number yet since the year isn’t over yet, but we do have the projected end of season payroll figure for 2026 — $191 million, per Cot’s. That’s almost $50 million less than 2023 and 2024, and almost $40 million less than last year.
So not only have the Rangers cut 20-25 percent in payroll this year from the previous three seasons, ownership is apparently balking at a potential increase of less than one percent in order to add reinforcements at the deadline.
The Pirates acquired Kirby Yates, and the $1.7 million left on his deal. They gave up Kyle Robinson, a non-descript 23 year old pitcher they acquired earlier this season from the A’s, who had drafted him in the 11th round in 2024. Baseball America’s rankings of all the prospects traded at the deadline had Robinson at #77 — six spots below Angel Arredondo, and six spots above Josh Stephan.
The Rangers could have acquired Yates, it would appear, for a nominal cost in terms of prospects, if they’d have been willing to take on the $1.7 million that Yates is owed. Yates isn’t 2024 Kirby Yates, of course — he’s a serviceable middle reliever/set up man right now. But a team fighting for the playoffs, with a mediocre at best bullpen laden with guys found off the scrap heap, could sure as hell use a serviceable middle reliever/setup man.
It didn’t have to be Yates, of course. I’m just using him as an example. There were plenty of other relief arms that were moved for a negligible price, to teams that were willing to pay more than the pro-rated league minimum to fortify their bullpens. None of them ended up with Texas.
And maybe I’m off-base. Maybe ownership was willing to spend, was willing to add a million or two in salary the rest of the way in the right deal, and Chris Young & Co. couldn’t make it happen, couldn’t provide someone the Angels valued more than Kyle Robinson to get Kirby Yates, or that they valued more than Nacho Alvarez Jr. to get Brent Suter, or that the Mets valued more than Luke Gabrysh and John Spikerman to get Brooks Raley. Maybe the Rangers felt that the return of Junis, Cody Bradford coming back, Jordan Montgomery and Jack Leiter returning, would be fortification enough.
But when you see how payroll was slashed, see the reporting indicating that ownership didn’t want to add payroll, see that the one move that the Rangers did made was a salary dump of Josh Smith — resulting in them cutting payroll at the deadline, since Smith is making more than Logan O’Hoppe, the one guy making more than league minimum that the Rangers did add — it points to the conclusion that the lack of activity was Ray Davis mandated.
I’ve defended Rangers ownership since they bought the team from Tom Hicks, that crazy day in bankruptcy court when this group out-bid Mark Cuban and Jim Crane for the rights to the team. I’ve consistently pointed out that ownership has spent money, has had a top 10 payroll consistently, that when the team hasn’t spent big its been because it didn’t make sense to. They spent big in free agency two years in a row this decade, and were rewarded with a World Series.
But I can’t defend this. Yes, the Bally Sports bankruptcy hurt the club, like it has so many other franchises. Yes, the Victory+ mess no doubt has had an impact on the bottom line. I am sure that the Rangers are not bringing in as much money from their media rights as the organization anticipated it would even a few years ago.
But Ray Davis is estimated to be worth $4 billion by Forbes. Bob Simpson, the oil man who was the other chief money guy in the Rangers’ ownership group, does not have publicly available net worth figures, but if he’s not a billionaire, he’s a multi-hundred millionaire.
They bought the Rangers for $593 million in 2010. Forbes estimates the value of the club to be $2.7 billion, which may be conservative, given the San Diego Padres just sold for $3.9 million earlier this year.
Davis is in his mid-80s. Simpson is in his late-70s. They have more money than they can ever spend, than their families can ever spend. They have the wealth to do almost anything they want in the years they have left.
But apparently, they don’t want to use that wealth to add Kirby Yates to the Texas Rangers.
Especially with a potential lockout looming, and Davis being on the labor committee, and reportedly one of the hawks among the owners who are willing to jeopardize the 2027 season to get a salary cap in MLB.
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