The Texas Rangers have missed the postseason every season since winning the World Series and may have to shed some payroll in order to get back to fielding a competitive team.
Nearly half of the current payroll is tied to Corey Seager, Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi. All three are aging assets and are not quite living up to their contracts. It may be time to bite the bullet, and according to The Dallas Morning News' Evan Grant, they will try.
"The Rangers are going to search for trade partners for Corey Seager and Jacob deGrom. Perhaps Nathan Eovaldi, too," wrote Grant. "There simply is no other way. You can’t put together a competitive team with $190 million in player salaries with three aging players eating up $92 million of that."
deGrom is a two-time Cy Young Award winner and five-time All-Star. He is regarded as one of the best pitchers of this generation, but has a lengthy injury history. He made 30 starts last year and 31 starts this year. Last season, he was an All-Star, posting a 2.97 ERA. This year, his ERA was 4.20.
Seager has great power as a shortstop, but did not play well this year. He had a .227 batting average and posted an OPS below .850 for the first time since 2022, when he was still an All-Star. He will turn 33 soon, and it's possible that 2026 was simply a down year.
Seager underwent elbow surgery in October and should be healthy when the season starts. Perhaps his elbow was the reason for his woes.
Eovaldi, similar to deGrom, did not have a good year after a strong season in 2025. All three players are under club control past next season and could draw plenty of trade interest. However, their contracts will make it tough for the Rangers to get prized prospects in return.