While it’s far too small a sample on which to draw real conclusions, Teodo’s stuff has caught the attention of Bruce Bochy. “You don’t know, he could break spring with us. To be honest, yeah, he’s probably on the outside looking in, but that’s how much we think about him,” the veteran manager said on Monday (link via Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News). “The stuff works, he’s been starting, I like him coming from the ‘pen too. There’s not a lot of arms like this.”

Teodo, whom the Rangers added to the 40-man roster over the offseason, doesn’t have a real shot to start the season in the big league rotation. The Rangers have Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Tyler Mahle and Jon Gray lined up for their top four spots. Cody Bradford and Kumar Rocker are vying for the fifth starter job. There may be an opportunity in the bullpen. Texas has built its relief corps with a handful of low-cost free agent pickups and the trade for Robert Garcia. Teodo might have as good of raw stuff as anyone in that group, but breaking camp would require him to make the jump directly from Double-A.

Working as a starter with Double-A Frisco last season, Teodo turned in a 1.98 earned run average across 86 1/3 innings. He punched out 30.7% of opponents against a huge 14% walk rate. While the high-octane stuff has translated into a lot of whiffs, Teodo has yet to throw strikes consistently. Baseball America ranked him the #4 prospect in the system. They credit him with the potential for three plus or better pitches — headlined by a huge fastball-slider combination — but his control could point to a bullpen future. If Texas believes that’s the likeliest outcome regardless, there’s an argument for seeing how his stuff plays in relief on Opening Day.

Jack Leiter has had a similar combination of whiffs and walks in the minor leagues. The former second overall pick fanned a third of opponents with a 10.6% walk rate over 17 Triple-A appearances last season. The strikeout rate dropped to 17.9% as he surrendered nearly a run per inning over his first 35 2/3 MLB frames. Leiter has a pair of minor league options remaining and seems likely to work out of the Triple-A rotation to open the season.

The 24-year-old righty told reporters he’s tinkering with his pitch mix (link via Kennedi Landry of MLB.com). Leiter said he’s working on a two-seam fastball that he picked up over the offseason. More interestingly, he said he adjusted the grip on his changeup late last year after a conversation with reliever Matt Festa. Leiter said he feels the new grip gets more downward action but that he didn’t feel comfortable using it frequently in games last year because it was difficult to command. Spring Training is an opportune time for pitchers to experiment with new offerings. Leiter has tossed five innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts and one walk thus far in camp.

March 4: Rangers outfielder Adolis Garcia was scratched from today’s Cactus League game after reporting some discomfort in his left oblique. He’s headed for an MRI, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. The team will have further updates once that imaging is performed. For now, manager Bruce Bochy has conceded that Garcia will “miss a little bit of time,” though he added that the team is hopeful it won’t be too lengthy an absence. Fellow outfielder Wyatt Langford sustained an oblique injury of his own 11 days ago and has yet to appear in a spring game. The Rangers haven’t yet ruled out Opening Day for either player.

Garcia, who just turned 32 over the weekend, enters the 2025 season in search of a rebound at the plate. He played a vital heart-of-the-order role for the Rangers in their 2023 World Series run, slashing .245/.328/.508 with 39 homers during that eventual championship-winning season for Texas.

The 2024 season brought a downturn in virtually every category of note. Garcia hit .224/.284/.400 with 25 homers. His strikeout rate remained nearly identical (27.7% in 2023, 27.8% in 2024), but his walk rate fell by more than three percentage points and he saw notable declines in exit velocity, hard-hit rate and barrel rate. Garcia also hit fewer fly-balls and saw a greater percentage of his fly-balls (12%, compared to 7.2% in ’23) result in harmless infield flies; he popped out to the infield an ugly 21 times on the year. Garcia also chased off the plate more and saw his contact rate on pitches within the zone dip. He was placing himself in pitchers’ counts far too often.

Most confounding, perhaps, was Garcia’s struggle to hit fastballs. While he batted only .197 against four-seamers in that terrific 2023 season, he often did maximum damage when making contact. Garcia pounded 16 big flies off four-seamers in 2023 but went deep on only five four-seamers in 2024. He hit .197/.276/.490 on plate appearances ending with a four-seamer in ’23; that line fell to .184/.251/.310 in 2024.

Garcia is in line to again serve as the Rangers’ everyday right fielder, though a strain of any note could impact his readiness for the season. Oblique strains can often take upwards of a month to rehab, and the Rangers’ season starts in just over three weeks.

With Langford also ailing, there’s some murkiness about how Texas might line up in the outfield on March 27. Evan Carter and Leody Taveras are both healthy. Utilitymen Josh Smith and Ezequiel Duran have experience in the outfield. Designated hitter Joc Pederson could feasibly play left field in the short term, though he was exclusively a DH in Arizona last year (and has also been working out at first base this spring). Other options in camp include prospect Dustin Harris and veteran Kevin Pillar, who signed a minor league deal with a non-roster invitation last month.

On the back of that sensational 2023 season, Garcia signed a two-year, $14MM deal covering his first two arbitration seasons. He’s being paid $7MM this year and is under club control through the 2026 campaign. He’ll be arbitration-eligible for the final time next winter.

The Sox have taken a few hits to their outfield mix recently. Andrew Benintendi suffered a fracture in his hand after being hit by a pitch and is slated to be out of action for four to six weeks. Michael A. Taylor has been undergoing scans due to some elbow inflammation.

The club isn’t planning on being competitive this year but has made an effort to bolster the roster. They signed Slater, Taylor and Mike Tauchman to join an outfield/designated hitter mix alongside Benintendi and Luis Robert Jr. The idea was seemingly to add some veteran presence to a young roster while also giving the club some potential midseason trade candidates. With some more playing time opening up, perhaps young guys like Dominic Fletcher or Oscar Colás could seize roles. The club also has Joey Gallo, Brandon Drury and Corey Julks among their non-roster invitees.

Some more notes from around the Junior Circuit…

• Rangers left-hander Robert Garcia hopes to be a closer someday, telling Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News as much. He also believes now is a good time to take a shot at it with Texas not having a set closer yet. Garcia had a 4.22 earned run average last year but his 29.9% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate were quite strong. A .329 batting average on balls in play and 57.2% strand rate pushed that ERA up, which is why he had a 2.38 FIP and 2.71 SIERA. He doesn’t yet have a save in his career but has 17 holds. His main competition could come from veteran Chris Martin, who has plenty of good numbers on his track record but more as a setup guy than a closer. Martin has 14 career saves in the majors and 106 holds, though he did have a 21-save season in Japan in 2016.
• Twins right-hander Matt Canterino has been shut down due to a right shoulder strain, reports Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune. He’s awaiting a second opinion with no current timetable for his return. It’s another unfortunate setback for a righty who has had many. Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2023 season and then a rotator cuff strain prevented him from getting back on the mound last year, meaning he hasn’t pitched in official game action since 2022. Thanks to the pandemic and some other injuries, he only tossed 85 innings from 2019 to 2022. He had an excellent 1.85 ERA and 39.2% strikeout rate in that time, prompting the Twins to protect him from the Rule 5 draft by giving him a roster spot in November of 2022. But since then, he has burned through two of his option years without throwing an official pitch and is now hurt again.

As spring training progresses, we’re seeing an uptick in minor league signings. Free agents who’ve lingered on the market and felt their leverage in negotiations dry up begin to concede and accept non-guaranteed pacts to get to camp in hopes of winning a roster spot.

Salary details for minor league signees isn’t as prominently reported on as it is for players signing guaranteed big league deals. The Associated Press just published a list of free agent signings throughout the winter, including within salary details for a handful of (mostly) recent minor league signings. Many of the salaries reported by the AP were already known and reflected here at MLBTR, but the report does include more than two dozen previously unreported base salaries for players on minor league deals. Here’s a quick rundown (player salary links point back to prior MLBTR posts detailing that minor league signing):

Blue Jays: Jacob Barnes, RHP, $1.4MM | Ryan Yarbrough, LHP, $2MM

Braves: Curt Casali, C, $1.25MM | Buck Farmer, RHP, $1MM

Brewers: Manuel Margot, OF, $1.3MM | Mark Canha, 1B/OF, $1.4MM

Cubs: Brooks Kriske, RHP, $900K | Travis Jankowski, OF, $1.25MM | Chris Flexen, RHP, $1.5MM

Diamondbacks: Garrett Hampson, INF/OF, $1.5MM | Scott McGough, RHP, $1.25MM

Dodgers: Luis Garcia, RHP, $1.5MM

Giants: Lou Trivino, RHP, $1.5MM

Mariners: Shintaro Fujinami, RHP, $1.3MM | Trevor Gott, RHP, $1.35MM

Padres: Yuli Gurriel, 1B, $1.35MM ($100K higher than initially reported)

Rangers: Nick Ahmed, SS, $1.25MM | Jesse Chavez, RHP, $1.25MM | David Buchanan, RHP, $1.375MM | Kevin Pillar, OF, $1MM

Red Sox: Matt Moore, LHP, $2MM

Royals: Luke Maile, C, $2MM | Ross Stripling, RHP, $1.75MM

White Sox: Brandon Drury, INF/OF, $2MM | Mike Clevinger, RHP, $1.5MM

A few things bear emphasizing. First, this is clearly not a comprehensive list of minor league signings throughout the league — nor is it even a comprehensive list of the listed teams’ non-roster invitees to camp. Secondly, many of these sums are of little consequence to the team. They’re not even guaranteed, after all, and even if a player makes the Opening Day roster and earns the full slate of his minor league salary, most of these salaries aren’t going to carry significant payroll ramifications.

That’s not true across the board, though. For instance, the Rangers are fully intent on remaining under the $241MM luxury tax threshold. At present, RosterResource projects them at $235.7MM of luxury obligations. Opting to select the contract of Buchanan or Chavez rather than allocating those innings to pre-arbitration players who’s being paid at league-minimum levels (or a few thousand dollars north of it) would inch the Rangers’ CBT number forward. They’re not going to hit the tax line even in if they wind up adding multiple NRIs to the actual roster, but selecting their contracts will further narrow the resources president of baseball ops Chris Young will have at his disposal for midseason dealings.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, are effectively seated right at the tax threshold. RosterResource has them with $241.4MM of luxury considerations. Team president Sam Kennedy said after signing Alex Bregman that he expects his team will be a CBT payor in 2025. As things stand, the Sox could duck back under that threshold, but selecting the contract of Moore, Adam Ottavino (also $2MM) or another prominent NRI would further signal ownership’s willingness to return to luxury tax status for the first time since 2022.

There’s probably no getting back under the tax line for the Blue Jays, who currently have a $273.3MM CBT number. However, the front office would presumably like to avoid reaching $281MM in tax obligations, as that’s the point at which Toronto’s top pick in the 2026 draft would be dropped by ten spots. In-season trades will have more of an effect on their tax number than decisions on NRIs like Barnes, Yarbrough, Eric Lauer and others, but it bears mentioning that the Blue Jays are around $8MM shy of what many clubs consider to be the most detrimental impact of straying to deep into CBT waters.

As Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News writes, manager Bruce Bochy and GM Chris Young have left open the possibility for Rocker to break camp. That might require an injury elsewhere in the rotation, however, as it seems Rocker enters Spring Training sixth on the depth chart. Texas has a veteran top four: Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Tyler Mahle and Jon Gray. The fifth spot could come down to a battle between Rocker and left-hander Cody Bradford — with the latter potentially having the leg up.

“We’re going to see where we come out of camp, where we are from a medical standpoint, who’s healthy, how guys have thrown the ball, but (Rocker is) certainly one that is in our plans,” Young said. “We just can’t tell you exactly how at this point.” The third overall pick in the 2022 draft, Rocker earned a brief debut last September. He started three games, allowing six runs (five earned) through 11 2/3 innings. The 6’5″ righty recorded 14 strikeouts with an excellent 13.3% swinging strike rate. It’s an exceedingly small sample, but he looks capable of missing bats at the highest level.

Rocker averaged 96 MPH on his heater, while opponents had few answers for his slider. The latter pitch may already be one of the game’s top breaking balls. Baseball America graded the slider as a plus-plus offering (70 on the 20-80 scale) while ranking Rocker among their top 20 prospects. The 25-year-old will certainly be a factor at some point this season, though it remains to be seen how the Rangers want to handle his workload. Rocker underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023 and has all of 19 professional appearances under his belt. He has tallied fewer than 30 innings between Double-A and Triple-A. Rocker carved up minor league hitters upon returning from the surgery, working to a 1.96 ERA with 55 strikeouts in 36 2/3 frames over 10 appearances.

The 27-year-old Bradford has almost the polar opposite approach. He’s a soft-tossing lefty who relies on a plus changeup and elite command. Despite lacking huge stuff, Bradford turned in a 3.54 ERA with a solid 22.7% strikeout rate over 76 1/3 innings last season. A back injury cost him three months, but he was a quietly productive starter when healthy. Both Rocker and Bradford have minor league options remaining. While Dane Dunning remains on hand as well, he’s likelier to pitch in long relief after a rough ’24 season.

There’s no doubt about Eovaldi’s role. He’ll be back in the top half of the rotation after re-signing on a three-year, $75MM free agent deal. The 13-year MLB veteran has been incredibly consistent, turning in a sub-4.00 ERA in five straight seasons. That hasn’t stopped him from using exhibition play to tinker with his arsenal.

Eovaldi told reporters last week that he has been working on a two-seam fastball throughout the offseason (link via Kennedi Landry of MLB.com). The righty confirmed that he used it a few times in his Spring Training debut on Friday against Kansas City. Brooks Baseball tracked five of his pitches as sinkers (which is the two-seam fastball) over two innings. Eovaldi has had a five-pitch mix for most of his career: four-seam, splitter, cutter, curveball and a slider that he only throws against right-handed hitters. He told Landry and other reporters that he’ll continue to work on the two-seam, which he wants to run up and in against righty batters to keep them off the splitter lower in the zone.

One player who has yet to get his exhibition season underway: second-year left fielder Wyatt Langford. Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports was among those to report last week that Langford was being held back from baseball activities for a few days after being diagnosed with a mild oblique strain. Bochy maintained that the Rangers consider this a minor setback and anticipate that Langford will be ready for Opening Day. He’ll look to build off a solid rookie season in which he hit .253/.325/.415 with 16 homers across 557 plate appearances.

“It’s likely UCL,” Young said, as relayed by Landry. “I don’t want to officially say, but yeah, it’s elbow and will probably require Tommy John.”

The 23-year-old was a fifth-round pick by the Rangers in the 2023 draft. It’s a brutal blow for the righty, who was nothing short of sensational in his first season as a pro in 2024. He split the year between Single-A and High-A, pitching to a sterling 2.24 ERA overall with 88 1/3 innings of work. He struck out an incredible 36.9% of opponents faced in total last year while walking just 3.7% of batters. It was a massive leap forward for a player who never posted an ERA below 5.00 during his collegiate career.

Unfortunately, that incredible breakout will be put on hold for the 2025 campaign. While specifics of what exact procedure Rosario will undergo have not yet been made public, even an internal brace procedure comes with about a year of rehab time, with full Tommy John requiring a longer rehab that would likely stretch into the 2026 season. Rosario appeared on track to either start 2025 at Double-A or earn a promotion to the level early in the campaign, but those plans will have to be scuttled for the year. That seems likely to delay his big league debut until 2027 at the earliest, surely a disappointing development for both the Rangers and the righty himself.

Fortunately for Texas, they’re hardly short on starting pitching options for the 2025 campaign. Nathan Eovaldi, Jacob deGrom, Jon Gray, Tyler Mahle, and Cody Bradford currently project as the club’s starting five on Opening Day, with Dane Dunning also on the roster as a potential swing man. That roster is supplemented by a handful of young prospects, including former first-round picks Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter. Both of them made their big league debuts in 2024; Leiter struggled through 35 2/3 innings of work with an 8.83 ERA, though he did pitch to a 3.51 ERA in 77 innings of work at the Triple-A level. That’s a particularly impressive figure given the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League and his excellent 33.3% strikeout rate.

Rocker, meanwhile, showed out in a three-start cup of coffee late in the year with a 3.86 ERA and 3.68 FIP. He was even better in the minors, with just three earned runs allowed across seven starts between the Double- and Triple-A levels last year after returning from Tommy John surgery earlier in the year. The presence of Leiter and Rocker, as well as other youngsters like Emiliano Teodo, should help the Rangers to weather Rosario’s delayed big league timeline even as Gray and Mahle head for free agency after the 2025 season.

Pillar, 36, is a veteran of 12 MLB seasons. After getting his start as a 32nd-round pick with the Blue Jays back in 2011, he made his big league debut in 2013 and has fashioned a solid career for himself as a glove-first outfielder who can provide some offense against left-handed pitching. His peak seasons as Toronto’s everyday center fielder where he posted 8.2 fWAR and 14.0 bWAR from 2015 to 2018 are long behind him, but in more recent years he’s transitioned into being a serviceable fourth or fifth outfielder for a variety of MLB clubs.

In 2024, Pillar started the season with the White Sox but struggled badly through 17 games. The veteran was cut by Chicago but managed to find a job with the Angels in Anaheim after Mike Trout went down for the year due to a meniscus issue. Pillar joined the club’s outfield mix and did fairly well for himself, appearing in 83 games for the club while primarily playing center field. In 282 trips to the plate for the Halos, Pillar slashed .236/.291/.378 with a decent 88 wRC+ that suggested he was a touch below league average as a hitter. That’s perfectly serviceable for a depth piece, but Pillar notably crushed left-handed pitching with a .310/.352/.500 slash line against southpaws last year.

That seems to suggests he could be more productive on a team with a deeper outfield mix who can offer him more platoon protection against right-handed hitters, and that makes the Rangers a decent fit for his services despite their full outfield mix. Wyatt Langford and Adolis Garcia are expected to be the club’s regular outfielders in the corners, with Evan Carter getting regular reps in center field and Leody Taveras serving as the club’s fourth outfielder. Taveras is a somewhat imperfect complement to the lefty-swinging Carter in center, however, as he’s just a .231/.291/.320 hitter for his career against southpaws including a dismal .189/.270/.244 showing against them last year.

Taveras, who is controlled through the end of the 2027 season and is making just $4.75MM this year, has been bandied about as a potential trade candidate throughout the winter thanks to his questionable fit on the Rangers’ roster and the club’s desire to stay under the first threshold of the luxury tax this year. The club was reportedly receiving interest in Taveras as recently as the end of January, though now that Spring Training has begun the odds of any trade getting done have gone down significantly. Even so, bringing Pillar into the fold offers the Rangers insurance against injury following a season where Carter was limited to just 45 games by back issues while also potentially giving them the flexibility to listen to offers on Taveras more seriously than they would have if trading him would’ve forced them to rely on Garcia or Langford as their backup center fielder.

Jackson, 33, returns to the organization that originally selected him with the No. 45 overall pick in the 2010 draft. Texas traded Jackson to the Braves in 2016, receiving pitchers Brady Feigl and Tyrell Jenkins in return. Neither wound up throwing a major league pitch for the Rangers, while Jackson eventually emerged as a valuable setup man for the Braves, with his best year coming during the team’s 2021 World Series campaign.

Tommy John surgery cost Jackson the 2022 season — his final year of control with Atlanta before becoming a free agent. He landed a two-year, $11.5MM pact with the Giants in free agency, pitching well in year one of the deal (33 1/3 innings, 2.97 ERA in his return from surgery) before struggling in year two. He went back to the Braves alongside Jorge Soler in a salary-driven deadline swap. Jackson posted a 4.50 ERA in 18 innings with the Braves but also walked 13% of his opponents.

Jackson’s 5.09 ERA in 53 innings last season isn’t encouraging, but he posted a 1.98 ERA and that 2.97 mark on either end of his elbow surgery. Between those two seasons, he totaled 97 innings with a 2.32 ERA, 28% strikeout rate and 10.9% walk rate. He worked plenty of high-leverage spots, particularly with Atlanta in 2021, when he racked up a career-best 31 holds.

That’ll be the form the Rangers hope to capture in 2025. Jackson’s 94.7 mph average fastball this past season was down noticeably from his 96.1 mph peak, but he averaged only 94.4 mph in 2023, so there’s evidence to suggest he can succeed even if his heater never quite bounces back to pre-surgery levels. Jackson also induced chases off the plate at a solid 31.8% clip and recorded a strong 13.5% swinging-strike rate. His command has never been great and has been particularly problematic since his elbow troubles arose, but he can still miss bats and pile up grounders — as evidenced by last year’s 50.7% clip.

Jackson becomes the incredible seventh new addition to a completely rebuilt Rangers bullpen this offseason. Texas saw Kirby Yates, David Robertson, Jose Leclerc and Andrew Chafin become free agents at season’s end. With the team’s priority being to re-sign Nathan Eovaldi and add some bats who could help remedy last year’s struggles versus fastballs, the bulk of their offseason spending went to a three-year deal, $75MM for Eovaldi and a two-year, $37MM deal for Joc Pederson. Ownership has been steadfast in its desire to drop back under the luxury tax, leaving president of baseball operations Chris Young to take a volume-based approach to rounding out the relief corps rather than doling out pricey eight-figure deals to keep Yates, Leclerc and Robertson (who’s still unsigned but will presumably land an eight-figure deal himself, or at least close to it).

Chris Martin’s $5.5MM guarantee is the most expensive commitment Texas has made to a reliever this winter. The Rangers have also signed Hoby Milner ($2.5MM), Jacob Webb ($1.25MM), Shawn Armstrong ($1.25MM) and Luis Curvelo ($750K) to big league contracts. Lefty Robert Garcia was acquired from the Nationals in a trade that sent first baseman Nathaniel Lowe and his own eight-figure salary to Washington, thereby creating some flexibility for relatively big-money signings of Eovaldi and Pederson.

Texas was only about $7MM from the luxury tax threshold before agreeing to terms with Jackson. It stands to reason that he’s inking a similarly cost-effective deal to the ones signed by Milner, Webb and Armstrong. Unlike that trio, he does have a fair bit of high-leverage experience, which could give him a leg up when it comes to auditioning for setup or even closing work. If the Rangers want to leave some powder dry for in-season acquisitions, they might not have much capacity left for adding further big league free agents between now and Opening Day.

Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 reported the $1.5MM guarantee.

Pederson was a full-time DH with the Diamondbacks last season. He’s never been a good defender, but that was the first time in which a team kept him off the field entirely. Pederson had played regularly in the outfield before that. He broke in as a center fielder with the Dodgers but had moved more or less to a corner role by 2019.

Bochy downplayed the chance of using Pederson in the outfield at Globe Life Field. “I would imagine he could go out there, but I think the focus is more at first base right now, to help out a little bit. I don’t envision needing more depth in the outfield,” the veteran skipper told Grant and other reporters. “He hasn’t been over there very much, so I imagine he’s got a little rust on him. But he’s taken some ground balls already and we’ll make a call later. We think it’s going to work.”

Pederson has played 154 major league innings at first base. He made a pair of late-game appearances there for the Giants two seasons ago. His only 19 career starts as a first baseman came with Los Angeles back in 2019. He committed six errors in 149 innings, leading to very poor defensive metrics in that tiny sample. It’s an unfamiliar position, but it’s not uncommon for corner outfielders to log occasional first base action.

Texas should have a strong defensive outfield. They’re lined up with Wyatt Langford, Evan Carter and Adolis García as their starting trio. Leody Taveras is on hand as a quality fourth outfielder who can step into everyday center field work if Carter has any kind of recurrence of last year’s injury issues.

First base is a little less established. The Rangers traded Nathaniel Lowe to Washington for reliever Robert Garcia. That came on the heels of acquiring corner infielder Jake Burger from Miami. He’s lined up for the majority of playing time at first base. Burger doesn’t have great on-base skills but brings a lot of right-handed pop. He has respectively hit 34 and 29 homers over the past two years. While he divided his playing time equally between the corner infield spots for the Fish, he’s unlikely to play much third base on a team that has Josh Jung and Josh Smith.

Pederson will work primarily as a designated hitter against right-handed pitching. Burger has had neutral platoon splits for his career. He’ll play frequently against righties, but there’s little harm in testing if Pederson can adequately step in on occasion. That’d also give Bochy some flexibility to get García or Langford off their feet at times, potentially drawing Taveras into the lineup on days when Texas wants a stronger defensive outfield.

Gray said that he also hadn’t been approached about the idea, even if he was broadly open to closing if it meant helping the team.  But, he also set some lofty targets for his 2025 season, saying that he was “looking to eat a lot of innings.  I’d hopefully like to get to that 200-strikeout mark.  That would be cool.  The swing-and-miss and strikeout rate is something I really want to improve and I think it’s headed in the right direction.”

Gray’s career high in strikeouts is 185, set back in his first full MLB season in 2016 when the righty was still with the Rockies.  His personal best for innings is 172 1/3 frames in the 2018 season, and he has topped the 150-inning threshold in four of his 10 big league seasons.  Most recently, Gray tossed 102 2/3 innings last year, as he twice hit the injured list due to groin strains, and he underwent season-ending surgery in early September to remove a neuroma on the middle toe of his right foot.

“I’m happy with the way the surgery went and had a really good offseason,” Gray said, noting that the neuroma had been bothering him for almost a year, and likely contributed to his groin problems.  The injuries clearly hampered Gray’s performance, as he posted a 4.47 ERA and the lowest full-season strikeout rate (19.6%) of his career.

Beyond his natural competitive spirit in rebounding from a down year, Gray has even more incentive to bounce back since he is set to hit free agency next winter.  Gray is in the final season of the four-year, $56MM deal he signed with Texas during the 2021-22 offseason, and there was some speculation that the Rangers could look to trade Gray this winter in order to clear some money off the books.  No such deal happened, and thus the 33-year-old Gray is now looking for a nice platform year as he approaches the open market once more.

If Gray isn’t the closer or another reliever isn’t brought into the fold, Chris Martin looks like the favorite for saves, assuming that Texas even sticks with a set ninth-inning option.  Bochy told MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry and other reporters that “it can be by committee…So by no means are we getting locked in on any roles right now.  I think we’re going to stay flexible with that.”

To this end, Bochy said he hasn’t talked to Martin specifically about working in a closing capacity, but the skipper feels his relievers are “fine with not having a defined role.  They’re used to it, including Chris….They all have great attitudes.  They’re like, ’Hey, we’re there to get outs and use us where you need us to help win a ballgame.’ And that’s how that works.”

Martin has amassed only 14 saves over his nine MLB seasons, though he pointed out to Landry that he had 22 saves over his two seasons in Japan with the Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2016-17.  Getting some sustained run as a closer might be a fun way for Martin to wind up his career, but he plans to take the same approach no matter how he is utilized out of the Rangers’ bullpen.

“With closing, you still gotta get three outs,” Martin said.  “It’s just the last three of the game, so it can be a little more nerve wracking, but I’ve been around a bit now and I understand it’s just another three outs, whatever the run situation is.”

Robert Garcia is another newly-acquired reliever ticketed for high-leverage innings, as the Rangers acquired Garcia from the Nationals in return for Nathaniel Lowe in December.  The left-hander has yet to properly kick off his first Spring Training with his new team, however, due to some nerve irritation in his forearm.  The issue doesn’t seem too serious, as Bochy told Landry that Garcia is slated to throw his first bullpen session of the spring on Tuesday.

Barlow, 29, was an 11th-round pick by the Rangers back in 2016 and spent parts of three MLB seasons with the club from 2021 to 2023. He shared closing duties with veteran Ian Kennedy in his rookie season and took over as primary closer for the club the following year, though he ultimately lost the role midway through the 2022 campaign. His removal with the closer role coincided with a severe nosedive in performance. The righty sported a phenomenal career 2.15 ERA with a 22.6% strikeout rate and a 3.79 FIP across 54 1/3 innings when he recorded his final save as the Rangers’ closer in June of 2022, but since then he’s struggled badly with a 5.59 ERA, and 5.96 FIP and a strikeout rate of just 14.6% in 19 1/3 big league innings.

Given those disastrous numbers over the course of nearly a year between him losing the closer job and the trade that brought Jordan Montgomery and Chris Stratton to Texas at the 2023 trade deadline, it wasn’t exactly a surprise when the Rangers designated Barlow for assignment to make room for the incoming duo on the 40-man roster. Barlow was claimed off waivers by the Royals shortly thereafter but did not make an appearance with the club, pitching in the minors until he was once again designated for assignment in early September. He was eventually outrighted to the minors and signed a minor league deal with the White Sox last year, though he did not receive a call-up to the major leagues.

Barlow’s struggles after being removed from the closer role may have been health-related. He made multiple trips to the injured list due to blisters on his right index finger during the 2022 campaign after losing his job in the ninth inning, and ultimately ended up undergoing offseason surgery to correct two tendons in his right wrist that were causing the blisters. Barlow then made a trip to the IL in early 2023 due to kidney stones. Upon joining the White Sox last season, Barlow spent nearly the whole 2024 campaign on the injured list with just 12 total appearances at Triple-A. In 30 innings of work at Triple-A with Chicago and Kansas City since departing Texas, Barlow has been torched to the tune of an 8.40 ERA with a 10.7% walk rate against a 23.1% strikeout rate.

Barlow will now have the opportunity to prove he’s healthy and work his way back towards the majors in a familiar environment. The Rangers, meanwhile, will hope he can recapture the form he flashed early in his big league career. Even that wouldn’t be enough to close on a team with playoff aspirations like the Rangers have become, but Barlow could still join the deep group of arms the club has added this winter to help in the middle innings like Jacob Webb and Shawn Armstrong.

Chargois, 34, has pitched in seven big league seasons, appearing for five different clubs. Originally a second-round pick by the Twins in 2012, he’s also bounced to the Dodgers, Mariners, Rays and Marlins. The Rice University product is coming off a nice 2024 campaign between Miami and Seattle, wherein he pitched 36 1/3 innings with a combined 2.23 earned run average. That mark overstates his effectiveness, as it was buoyed by a microscopic .189 average on balls in play and colossal 98% strand rate.

Chargois’ 20.5% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate were both passable but a bit worse than league average, and he gave up plenty of hard contact. He averaged 94.9 mph on his sinker, which is certainly above-average — but also a notable dip from the 96.3 mph he’d averaged across the five prior seasons. That may have been tied to the neck spasms that plagued him in 2024 and at one point landed him on the 60-day IL.

The Mariners could’ve retained Chargois this offseason via arbitration, as he’s only at 5.101 years of MLB service. They opted to non-tender him despite a reasonable $1.7MM projected salary, however (courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz).

Looking at the broader scope of Chargois’ career, he’s frequently been an effective reliever but has also too often been hobbled by injuries. In the past three years alone, he’s missed time with neck spasms, a ribcage strain and two separate oblique strains. He’s also had nerve and elbow injuries in his right arm.

Chargois has only reached 50 innings in one of his seven MLB campaigns. He’s also posted an ERA of 3.61 or better in five of those seasons. On the whole, he’s tallied 231 1/3 innings with a 3.35 ERA, 23.3% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate and 50.2% grounder rate. He’s usually kept the ball in the yard (0.97 HR/9), though last year’s 1.49 HR/9 mark is a bit of a red flag.

The Rangers have already formally bid farewell to Kirby Yates and Jose Leclerc. David Robertson and Andrew Chafin remain unsigned but seem likely to sign elsewhere as well. In place of that quartet, Texas has traded for Robert Garcia and signed free agents Chris Martin, Hoby Milner, Jacob Webb and Shawn Armstrong to major league deals. Chargois joins Jesse Chavez as the most experienced non-roster arm in camp and will compete for a spot in Bruce Bochy’s new-look relief corps.

Veteran reliever Chris Martin has the dominant relief numbers often associated with the closer role, but has just 14 career saves and has not recorded more than four in a single season before. Those 14 saves are still enough to make him the most experienced ninth-inning arm in the Rangers’ new-look bullpen, which added interesting pieces like Robert Garcia, Hoby Milner, and Jacob Webb who have pitched well in the past but never been used as a closer. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News noted that it’s possible the club won’t have clearly defined roles in the bullpen entering the season due to the lack of a clear top closing option, though he added that there have been at least “internal discussions” about the possibility of using veteran starter Jon Gray in the ninth inning.

Grant emphasizes that as things currently stand, Gray appears to be more valuable to the club as a starter given the innings he can provide. 2024 was the first 162-game season of Gray’s career where he posted less than 20 starts and 110 innings of work since his nine-start cup of coffee with the Rockies as a rookie back in 2013, and with 1216 2/3 innings of work (including 387 1/3 in a Rangers uniform) under his belt Gray is valuable source of steadiness in a Texas rotation mix filled with aging, oft-injured, or young and unproven arms. Given that, it would hardly be a surprise to see the club simply stick with Gray in the rotation and use Martin for the lion’s share of save chances, or perhaps simply play matchups in the ninth inning without anointing a closer at all.

Even so, the idea of Gray as a reliever is a somewhat intriguing one. Gray was used out of the bullpen four times in 2024, the most he’s ever pitched in relief in his career to this point. While Gray’s seven innings of work out of the bullpen are much too small of a sample size to draw any major conclusions from, his brief work in the role was nothing short of dominant: Gray pitched to a 1.29 ERA in those four appearances with a phenomenal 37% strikeout rate against a 7.4% walk rate. Those are the kind of numbers that could be truly game-changing for a Rangers club that has struggled to find production in the bullpen in recent years, making a potential role change for Gray at least worth considering.

While it seems unlikely that the Rangers would move Gray to the bullpen to start the season, perhaps it could become a more feasible option as the season develops. The Rangers have very little certainty in their rotation, but huge amounts of upside. Top draft picks Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter figure to try and force their way into the rotation with the club this year, and healthy seasons from Jacob deGrom and Tyler Mahle would be able to turn the club’s starting five from a question mark to a major strength quite suddenly. If things are looking up for the club in the rotation this summer, perhaps Gray’s 4.70 ERA in 19 starts last year becomes less attractive as a steady, back-end option and the club decides to see what the 33-year-old can do as a full-time reliever.

The junior circuit’s west coast teams have been busy for the most part, perhaps reflecting the division’s tightly contested nature. A three-way race for the AL West came down to the final day of the 2023 season, and despite the Astros’ division title, the Rangers were the ones to be crowned World Series champions. In 2024, Houston’s long reign over the division started showing signs of cracks as they struggled out of the gate, won “just” 88 games (down by their standards) and were bounced from the playoffs in the AL Wild Card Series.

Which team has done the best job setting themselves up for 2024? Teams are listed in order of their 2024 record:

Houston Astros

The winds of change are blowing through Houston, and they’ll enter 2025 with a significantly reshaped roster. The most notable move this winter was to ship star outfielder Kyle Tucker to Chicago ahead of his final season under team control. Losing a player of Tucker’s caliber is always a brutal blow, but Houston did fairly well in the trade. They not only added a new top prospect in third baseman Cam Smith, but they also managed to bring in All-Star third baseman Isaac Paredes and bolster their rotation depth with right-hander Hayden Wesneski.

The additions of Paredes and Wesneski have patched holes left by the departures of Alex Bregman and Justin Verlander in free agency, though the club has apparently not completely closed the door on a reunion with Bregman. Meanwhile, the need at first base caused by Jose Abreu’s dramatic decline was filled by the addition of three-time Gold Glove winner Christian Walker. Solid as those moves have been, though, the Astros have subtracted more than they’ve added. Ryan Pressly, Yusei Kikuchi, and Jose Urquidy are no longer with the club, and the Astros’ replacement for Tucker as a left-handed outfield bat to this point appears to be a reunion with journeyman Ben Gamel.

Seattle Mariners

Seattle has had the quietest offseason in the division despite typically being one of the most active teams on the trade market. Rumors of a Luis Castillo deal have not come to fruition, and trade targets to bolster the club’s lackluster infield such as Nico Hoerner, Alec Bohm, and Triston Casas have all remained with their current teams. The Mariners’ lack of activity on the trade market has led them to make mostly ancillary moves. As ownership has scaled back the budget substantially, the Mariners have re-signed Jorge Polanco and added Donovan Solano for a combined $11.25MM. Their only other additions have been minor trades for players with minimal big league experience like Austin Shenton and Miles Mastrobuoni.

Texas Rangers

The Rangers’ front office has had a tall order placed in front of them this winter: navigate under the luxury tax while supplementing an offense that struggled last year and completely rebuilding a pitching staff that saw seven major pieces reach free agency. They’ve most succeeded in those goals. Robert Garcia, Chris Martin, Jacob Webb, Shawn Armstrong, and Hoby Milner were all brought in to help patch up one of the league’s weaker bullpens. The club parted with first baseman Nathaniel Lowe to bring Garcia into the fold, but his bat has been effectively swapped out for free agent pickup Joc Pederson and trade acquisition Jake Burger in trade.

Meanwhile, the club added some pop behind the plate by pairing Kyle Higashioka with Jonah Heim after Heim struggled through a down season offensively last year. The Rangers managed to keep Nathan Eovaldi on a three-year deal despite the soaring cost of starting pitching. Whether these additions will be enough to make up for the losses of Lowe, Kirby Yates, David Robertson, Jose Leclerc, Andrew Heaney and Max Scherzer remains to be seen.

Athletics

After shuttering the Coliseum and departing Oakland for a temporary stay in West Sacramento, the A’s have begun to spend more aggressively than they have in years. The club locked up breakout slugger Brent Rooker for the next five seasons on a $60MM extension and has been active both the trade and free agent markets. The A’s signed Luis Severino to a club-record three-year, $67MM deal while also agreeing to deals with third baseman Gio Urshela, former Rangers closer Jose Leclerc and lefty T.J. McFarland. On the trade market, they added southpaws Jeffrey Springs and Jacob Lopez in a deal with the Rays that saw them surrender Joe Boyle, their Competitive Balance Round A pick, and two prospects.

Los Angeles Angels

After narrowly avoiding the first 100-loss season in franchise history, the Angels were heavily active in the early stages of the offseason. They acquired slugger Jorge Soler in a trade with the Braves on day one of the offseason, surrendering only non-tender candidate Griffin Canning. They added Scott Kingery in a cash swap with the Phillies shortly thereafter. The early days of free agency brought deals for Yusei Kikuchi, Travis d’Arnaud, Kyle Hendricks, and Kevin Newman.

Things have been mostly quiet in Anaheim since that flurry of moves back in November, and it will surely take a strong, healthy season from Mike Trout in addition to steps forward for multiple youngsters if the Angels are going to contend for the postseason in 2025.

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The AL West appears to have moved towards parity somewhat this winter. The Astros have sacrificed maximizing their immediate odds at continued dominance in the name of longer-term stability. The Mariners opted to keep their elite rotation together rather than risk breaking up the group to strengthen a mediocre lineup. The Rangers have been very active in reshaping their roster in hopes of recapturing the glory of 2023, while the fourth- and fifth-place A’s and Angels have been surprisingly aggressive in their efforts to separate themselves from the AL’s cellar dwellers.

Of the five AL West clubs, which one has had the strongest offseason so far? Have your say in the poll below:

Festa, 32 in March, spent the latter half of the 2024 season with the Rangers. He was selected to the roster in August and tossed 22 2/3 innings for them in what remained of the schedule, allowing 4.37 earned runs per nine. His 25% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate were both a bit better than average.

Despite that decent showing, he was bumped off the roster last month, getting designated for assignment when Texas signed Chris Martin. He was flipped to the Cubs for cash but only lasted a few weeks with that team. The Cubs gave him the DFA treatment to open a roster spot when they acquired Ryan Pressly.

Festa cleared waivers and was outrighted by the Cubs to Triple-A Iowa. Players with at least one previous career outright, such as Festa, have the right to reject another outright assignment in favor of free agency. It appears that he did indeed elect free agency and has circled back to the Rangers.

He now has 117 1/3 major league innings under his belt with a 4.60 ERA. His 10.3% career walk rate is a tad high but he has paired that with a strong 25% strikeout rate. The Rangers have been trying to bolster their bullpen on the cheap this winter. They lost Kirby Yates, David Robertson, José Leclerc and Andrew Chafin to free agency at season’s end. That gave them a lot of work to do but they have had a clear goal of avoiding the competitive balance tax this winter.

They acquired Robert Garcia, who has not yet qualified for arbitration, in the Nathaniel Lowe deal. They have signed Martin, Jacob Webb, Shawn Armstrong and Hoby Milner to one-year deals, each worth less than $6MM. They have given minor league deals to Jesse Chavez, Codi Heuer, Patrick Murphy and now Festa. If Festa gets added to the roster at any point, he is out of options but has just over two years of service time, meaning he hasn’t yet qualified for arbitration.