Texas Rangers 2024-2025 Offseason Thread

[saddles]

Kyle Higashioka's contract

2025: $5.75 million
2026: $6.75 million
2027: $7 million option or $1 million buyout.

 

[saddles]

Aroldus Chapman signs with the Red Sox. 1 year and $10.5 million.

The relievers might start flying off the shelves at any time.

 

[scotsman#1948]

Maybe he will be Sasaki's personal catcher.

and maybe Tanner Scott's

 

[Duane1952]

From Texas Rangers PR:

Higashioka, 34, batted .220 (54-246), and set career highs in home runs (17) and RBI (45) over 84 games for San Diego in 2024. He threw out 13 of 65 attempted base stealers for a 20.0% caught stealing pct., the 4th-best figure in the NL among catchers with 75+ starts.

He also had only 54 hits.

 

[saddles]

Justbaseball.com predicts 18 players will be selected in Rule 5 in 8 days. They predict 3 of thpse players will be Rangers prospects.

Dane Acker
Bryan Magdaleno
Blaine Crim

Rule 5 Draft Preview: Which Prospects Will Be Selected?

The 2025 Rule 5 Draft will be held on Wednesday, December 11th at 2:00 p.m. EST at the MLB Winter Meetings in Dallas, Texas.

www.justbaseball.com

 

[saddles]

The Rangers really struggle at protecting the right players from Rule 5. All 3 of those guys should have been protected. This is an organizational failure.

 

[saddles]

From Jeff Wilson:

#Rangers are planning to give Jonah Heim and Kyle Higashioka equal playing time, GM Ross Fenstermaker says.

 

[Duane1952]

From Jeff Wilson:

#Rangers are planning to give Jonah Heim and Kyle Higashioka equal playing time, GM Ross Fenstermaker says.

Can’t believe they signed him. He hit in the 140’s last season when he was made the starting catcher.

 

[saddles]

Can’t believe they signed him. He hit in the 140’s last season when he was made the starting catcher.

I think ww have 2 things in play here. I think they wanted any catcher as long as it wasn't Huff, and I blame Bochy for this part.

Another thing is that they strongly believe Jonah will bounce back to hit the way he did in the first few months of 2023. They probably expect Jonah to do so and then they will shift his playing time to where Jonah plays close to 75-80% of the time.

I think they are wrong with both of those. I expect Huff to do well elsewhere in a starting role. I also believe.Jonah will not bounce back to the extent that t jey expect him to. I look for us to have weak offensive output from the catcher position until they give up on this plan.

At some point we are probably going to have to make a major trade for a catcher.

 

[Duane1952]

I think ww have 2 things in play here. I think they wanted any catcher as long as it wasn't Huff, and I blame Bochy for this part.

Another thing is that they strongly believe Jonah will bounce back to hit the way he did in the first few months of 2023. They probably expect Jonah to do so and then they will shift his playing time to where Jonah plays close to 75-80% of the time.

I think they are wrong with both of those. I expect Huff to do well elsewhere in a starting role. I also believe.Jonah will not bounce back to the extent that t jey expect him to. I look for us to have weak offensive output from the catcher position until they give up on this plan.

At some point we are probably going to have to make a major trade for a catcher.

I agree with Heim returning to the 2023 form. He hadn’t hit above 227 before that season. Not only was his offense bad last season, his defense wasn’t good either. They sure are paying Kyle a lot of money for someone that can’t hit to be backup catcher.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

This Golden Rule idea being thrown out by Manfred is just absurd. That has to be one of the stupidest ideas ever in sports.

 

[Kelleyman]

not quite pessimistic as some re our catching situation. We drafted one as well. Maybe we let this play out.
Bochy certainly has an opinion on catchers as that was his position
As a catcher have to think defense trumps offense but to get both is golden

have no idea how Heim responds but looks like they wanted to get a catcher who plays half the time.

 

[saddles]

From Jeff Wilson:

Who’s next?​

The Rangers have a policy of not talking about specific free agents, which in the Young era means not speaking about their free agents. Nathan Eovaldi is one of them, and a source recently said that the Rangers have been in steady contact with the right-hander.

When asked about Eovaldi, Fenstermaker said that the Rangers are in contact with “a lot of the high-end arms and starting pitchers and trying to figure out if there’s a fit there.”

Hello.

Left-hander Blake Snell was at the top of the market and signed a five-year, $182 million deal with $66 million deferred. Right-hander Corbin Burnes might be the very top of the market and is expected to fetch more years than Snell.

The “fit” Fenstermaker referred to is likely financial. When he mentioned “starting pitchers,” he could mean those on lower tiers. When he said “top arms,” he might have included closers such as Tanner Scott, Carlos Esteves and Kirby Yates.

But put everything together, and Fenstermaker made it sound as if the Rangers have money to make a significant addition to the rotation and the bullpen.

 

[saddles]

From Jeff Wilson:

Huff’s future​

The addition of Higashioka would seem to cast doubt over the future of catcher Sam Huff, who was long thought to be the catcher of the future. But he is out of minor-league options after a down season at Triple A Round Rock, and there is no clear path for him to be the No. 2 catcher.

Fenstermaker, though, said Huff still has a chance to make the team in spring training. He might play some first base to help his chances at making the roster.

“Sam’s still in competition,” Fenstermaker said. “We’ve carried three catchers before, and it’s an opportunity for us to consider depending on where Sam is in spring training.

“But it’s a performance-based game, and we’re going to evaluate how things go in spring training. We’re ultimately going to leave with the best club coming out of spring training.”

The Rangers haven’t given up on Huff, and Higashioka is an example as to why. He spent 10 years in the minor leagues before finally breaking through in the majors, showing once again that every player takes his own path to the big leagues.

 

[saddles]

They can-t very well say they are done with Huff and hope to get anything for him in trade.

 

[DT LUNA]

They can-t very well say they are done with Huff and hope to get anything for him in trade.

Hard to believe they have any interest in Sam at this time.

 

[saddles]

Hard to believe they have any interest in Sam at this time.

The only way I see they could have any interest in him at all is if they know they will attempt to trade Lowe. If that is the plan, then maybe they will keep Huff around long enough to compete with Foscue for 1B playing time. I doubt they are even considering trying to trade Nathaniel Lowe though.

They also could be waiting to see if Crim is taken in Rule 5. It is possible they could trade both Lowe and Huff if Crim is still around. I really don't think they have any real respect for either Huff's or Crim's abilities.

 

[scotsman#1948]

MLBTR is reporting that the bidding on Soto has reached 400M and includes 11 teams

 

[WastinSomeTime]

MLBTR is reporting that the bidding on Soto has reached 400M and includes 11 teams

Too much.

 

[scotsman#1948]

Too much.

thankfully it appears the Rangers are not one of the 11 teams