Free agents Rangers must target after World Series victory
After an arduous 162-game season and four grueling playoff series, the Texas Rangers are World Series champions. Now, with the offseason upon us, Texas must take the first steps toward defending its title.
A number of key Rangers players are free agents this offseason, notably: Will Smith, Aroldis Chapman, Mitch Garver, Jordan Montgomery, and Martin Perez. Will the Rangers look to keep these players or choose to let these World Series-winners go for contracts that are likely inflated?
Texas will consider which outside talent it needs to sign. With Jacob DeGrom out until midseason and Montgomery and Perez possibly ending up elsewhere, is it worth adding more starting rotation depth? Which players should be targeted to upgrade a bullpen that was downright awful at times?
The work of a World champion never stops. Here are three free agents the Texas Rangers must target in order to defend their World Series title in 2024.
Josh Hader (RP), San Diego Padres
If there was one weakness for the Rangers in 2023, it was their bullpen. Texas converted just 48% of its save opportunities — the worst in the league. Rangers relievers other than Will Smith were 8/28 in save chances. Smith and Aroldis Chapman, the team’s top two relievers, are both unrestricted free agents this winter and are 34 and 35 years old, respectively. It is unlikely that the Rangers keep both of them and even if they keep one of these lefties, the bullpen is still in need of an upgrade.
Josh Hader is the best free agent closer available, coming off a year in which he had a 1.28 ERA and converted 33/38 saves. Adding an elite closer like Hader immediately solidifies this relief corps and mitigates the team’s biggest weakness.
Keynan Middleton (RP), New York Yankees
The addition of an elite closer would certainly improve the backend Rangers bullpen, but Texas needs guys to pitch the seventh and eighth innings as well. One of the top guys available in the setup role is Keynan Middleton, a right-hander who spent last year with the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees.
Middleton had an ERA of 3.38 on the year but really turned it on for the Yankees down the stretch. He had an ERA of 1.88 in 14.1 innings pitched in New York while posting a WHIP of 0.977. The analytics show that Middleton was in the 90th percentile or better among MLB pitchers in average exit velocity, whiff rate, and ground ball rate. While far from the biggest name on the market, Keynan Middleton would be an ideal addition to this middling Rangers bullpen.
Reynaldo Lopez (Cleveland Guardians)
Relief pitching was the only position where the Rangers finished in the bottom third in the league in terms of positional WAR. It was also the only position where the Rangers even had a negative WAR. Now that is the makeup of a championship team. It only makes sense that Texas hyperfocuses on this noticeable deficiency in the offseason.
Reynaldo Lopez is coming off another solid year in 2023, putting up a 3.27 ERA while pitching 10-plus games for three different clubs. His fastball averages 98 miles per hour while he ranked in the 90th percentile in Major League Baseball in whiff rate. If he can improve his walk rate (12.2%, eighth percentile in MLB), he will be a weapon out of the Texas pen that will likely look very different next year.
