The Texas Rangers’ 2026 season has come to an end, which means it is a pretty good time for us to check in on the state of the Rangers’ 40 man roster.
The 40 man roster currently is full, and in addition, there are six players — Carter Baumler, Jalen Beeks, Jose Corniell, Jack Leiter, Cal Quantrill, and Cole Winn — on the 60 day injured list. Those six players will have to come off the 60 day injured list at the end of the regular season, which means we have 46 players to account for on the 40 man roster.
Now, two of those six players — Jalen Beeks and Cal Quantrill — will be free agents at season’s end, which means we don’t have to concern ourselves with finding a 40 man roster spot for them. In addition, the following players are also set to hit free agency at the end of the season:
Tyler Alexander
Elias Diaz
Kyle Higashioka
Jakob Junis
Nicky Lopez
Jordan Montgomery
Joc Pederson
Trevor Williams
Yes, Higashioka and Pederson technically have mutual options, but since either side can decline, we can treat the pair as being pending free agents.
That gets us down to 36 players on the 40 man roster at the end of the season. So unlike, say, the San Francisco Giants — who have a full 40 man roster, 16 players on the 60 day injured list, and only one pending free agent — the Rangers won’t have to immediately put a bunch of guys on waivers once the season is over.
That said, there are some players currently on the 40 man roster who are not pending free agents, but who are going to end up being waived or non-tendered to create 40 man roster spots. The Rangers are going to have to once again build their bullpen from almost scratch, as well as likely add one or more minor leaguers to the 40 man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft. We will go over who is Rule 5 eligible and who is likely to be protected in a future post.
The Rangers’ arbitration-eligible players are:
MacKenzie Gore — Arb 3
Logan O’Hoppe — Arb 2
Jake Burger — Arb 2
Josh Jung — Arb 2
Ezequiel Duran — Arb 2
Wyatt Langford — Arb 1
Robert Garcia — Arb 1
Jacob Latz — Arb 1
Cody Bradford — Arb 1
Evan Carter — Arb 1
As far as potential non-tenders go, most of these guys would appear to be safe from a potential non-tender. The two guys who strike me as possibilities for a non-tender would be Jake Burger and Logan O’Hoppe.
Burger has two seasons of team control remaining, and made $3.2 million in 2026. I’m guessing he’s looking at around $5.5 million in 2027. That’s cheaper than what you can get a similar player for on the open market — Josh Bell, for example, is a DH-only whose OPS+ the past four years has been 104, and assuming the Twins buy out his $10 million team option, he’ll have been paid $7 million for his one season of work for them.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that Burger will be a Ranger for 2027, though. Josh Jung, who has never been great defensively and who has put up an aggregate -18 DRS the past three seasons (-12 in 2026) and an aggregate -6 FRV (-4 in 2026) could be moved to first base in anticipation that Sebastian Walcott will be, if not the third baseman to start the 2027 season, the third baseman for the Rangers at some point in 2027. In that case, the Rangers would have to decide whether to make Burger a DH or trade him. Its possible that, with the uncertainty surrounding the labor situation, neither the Rangers nor any other team want to take a risk on what Burger might get in arbitration under a new CBA, and thus Burger could get non-tendered. But I think its more likely the Rangers tender him and then decide what they want to do with him from there, if he’s not traded before then.
As for O’Hoppe, acquired from the Angels with Chase Silseth at the deadline for Angel Arredondo, he made $2.63 million in 2026, and still has three years of team control remaining due to the time he spent on optional assignment in the minors in 2026. O’Hoppe’s defense, both statistically and per reports, has regressed significantly, and other than one inning behind the plate, the Rangers only used him as at DH during his time in the majors with them. He split his time at Round Rock roughly between catcher and DH.
The Rangers have Danny Jansen — who was pretty solid overall when he was healthy in 2026 — under contract for 2027, but no other realistic option in the system to be Jansen’s backup for 2027. If the Rangers were, say, the Dodgers or Yankees or someone like that, they’d tender O’Hoppe, who has options remaining, and send him to AAA to be their third catcher if they don’t think the glove and/or bat warrants a backup role, and find some veteran free agent to be the primary backup for Jansen. Because this is the Rangers, I’m not so sure that they’ll do that. They may, instead, offer O’Hoppe something similar to what he made in 2026 — or a slight reduction from that amount — and threaten to non-tender him if he doesn’t agree to that before the deadline.
Speaking of Silseth, he has two years and 105 days of service time. That should have him short of being a Super Two, but we won’t know for sure until the official numbers from MLB come out.
So that gets us to 34 to 36 players on the 40 man roster. The Rangers will probably need to pair another 4-6 players at some point in the offseason. Here’s who I see as being potential 40 man casualties:
The Injured Rule 5 Pick — Carter Baumler
Carter Baumler was acquired by the Texas Rangers as a Rule 5 selection from the Baltimore Orioles this past winter. The Orioles left him exposed because of concerns about Baumler’s inability to stay off the injured list. The righthanded reliever impressed in spring training, made the Opening Day roster, and was on the active roster before he went on the injured list, where he spent the rest of the season (although he did make 11 rehab appearances for the Express — three in late April before he was shut down again, and eight at the end of the AAA season).
Baumler will have to spend, by my math, 80 days on an active major league roster before he can be optioned to the minors, so if Baumler does stay on the Rangers’ 40 man roster until Opening Day, he’ll have to be carried on the active roster for 80 days or be put on waivers (assuming he doesn’t land on the injured list in the interim, in which case the service time calculation for Rule 5 purposes would be paused until he returns from the injured list).
If the Rangers had a crowded 40 man roster situation, Baumler would seem to be a no-brainer to be dropped — and he could be dropped anyway. If the Rangers feel good about what he showed in the final month with Round Rock and think he’s not a lost cause from a health standpoint, though, it would seem likely that they’d hang onto him and see how things go this spring.
The Up-and-Down Relievers Added in 2026 — Robby Ahlstrom, Gavin Collyer, Adam Macko, Ben Peoples
Four pitchers who were not on the 40 man roster to start the 2026 season, but who got a decent amount of time in the major league pen during the 2026 season. All of them except Macko have at least two options remaining after the 2026 season.
Ahlstrom, acquired from the Yankees all the way back in April, 2022, in the Jose Trevino trade, was exposed and went undrafted in the Rule 5 Draft in both 2024 and 2025. This year, the Rangers brought him up in June, and he got off to a very good start, allowing one run in 9.1 innings in his first nine appearances. He allowed 25 runs over 27.2 innings over his final 33 appearances, and ended up bouncing up and down between Round Rock and the majors over the final couple of months.
Ahlstrom ended the year with an ugly 6.08 ERA in 37 innings over 42 appearances in the majors, though with a more respectable 5.18 FIP and 4.31 xERA. He is also a lefty, which probably works in his favor.
Macko, 25, was acquired at the deadline from the Toronto Blue Jays for Josh Stephen and Josh Smith in what was basically a salary dump of Smith. He made just eight appearances covering nine innings for the Rangers post-trade, with a 6.00 ERA, and six appearances covering nine innings for the Express post-trade, with a 6.00 ERA. Like Ahlstrom, he’s a lefty, which helps, but I don’t know that the Rangers would keep both Ahlstrom and Macko on the 40 man roster, and with him being out of options, he seems like someone who could end up on the DFA carousel this winter.
Collyer is a righthander who was the Rangers’ 12th round draft pick in 2019. A free agent after the 2025 season, the Rangers re-signed him to a minor league deal, and after a strong camp, he was called up to the majors in mid-April. Like Ahlstrom, he got off to a strong start, not allowing a run in his first 11 appearances, covering 9.2 innings. Also like Ahlstrom, he had issues after that, allowing 16 runs over 15.1 innings in his final 13 appearances, walking and striking out 15. And like Ahlstrom, he ended up shuttling between AAA and the majors over the final few months, though he spent most of the second half in the minors.
Collyer put up a 2.37 ERA in 30 innings for Round Rock, with 42 Ks against 18 walks. His improved command was what got the team’s attention in spring training and got him promoted in the majors early. The failure to throw strikes in his later appearances with the team got him returned to Round Rock. The arm is legit — he was in the 84th percentile in fastball velocity, per Statcast, and elite at avoiding hard contact — but he’s not going to be more than an emergency up-and-down guy if he doesn’t tighten up the command and throw more strikes.
Peoples, acquired from the White Sox at the end of June for organizational depth A ball catcher Ben Hartl, is similar to Collyer in that he’s a righthander with a big fastball (75th percentile) and elite at avoiding loud contact, but who struggles to throw strikes. But while Collyer is mediocre at striking out batters, Peoples is near the bottom of the league, with just a 14.7% K rate.
Peoples was up for a month and a half after being acquired, was sent down in mid-August, and made just two more appearances in the big leagues for Texas after that. He ended the year with a 2.76 ERA in 16.1 innings over 16 appearances, but with just 10 Ks against 8 walks. He had an ugly 5.92 FIP but a respectable 3.92 xERA.
The Reliever Without Options Who Can’t Stay Healthy — Cole Winn
Cole Winn ended the 2026 season on the injured list, which is the same way his 2024 and 2025 seasons ended. He had two stints on the injured list in 2026, the same number of stints on the i.l. he had in 2025. He was out of options in 2026, and if he hadn’t been out of options, he probably would have been sent down to AAA at some point for a reason other than a rehab assignment.
Winn had a 7.79 ERA in 2024, a 1.51 ERA in 2025, and a 5.63 ERA in 2026. His xERAs (5.35, 4.19, 4.88) and FIPs (4.26, 3.90, 4.02) have been much more consistent and largely pretty pedestrian. His splitter and slider generate whiffs, but his command of his fastball and cutter in the strike zone results in those two pitches being punished too often.
I can’t see the Rangers keeping all four of Winn, Baumler, Collyer and Peoples. There’s only so many iffy righthanded middle relievers you can carry on your 40 man roster, especially given that the Rangers are going to add some (hopefully less iffy) righthanded middle relievers as free agents this offseason. It may be that the Rangers are going to be willing to carry either Winn or Baumler — two guys who can’t be sent down without clearing waivers — to start the 2027 season, but not both, and I’m not sure both stick on the 40 man roster all offseason.
The Nolan Ryan Winner Who Can’t Stay Healthy — Jose Corniell
Jose Corniell was the Nolan Ryan Pitcher of the Year in the Rangers’ organization for 2023, a season which saw him put up a 2.92 ERA in 101 innings between low-A and high-A. He missed all of 2024 and most of 2025 due to Tommy John surgery, but pitched very well upon his return in 2025, with a 1.89 ERA in 13 appearances in the minors before making his major league debut in game 162 of 2025.
2026 was a disaster, as he put up a 6.37 ERA in 10 appearances in AAA, and allowed 10 runs in 4.1 innings in two appearances in the majors when he was pressed into emergency duty. He went on the 60 day i.l. after his final major league appearance in July, and his status for 2027 is unclear.
Corniell technically is out of options, though he is most likely eligible for a fourth option. Given his health issues, however, I think there’s a good chance he is non-tendered and re-signed to a minor league contract.
The Disappointing Upper-Level Minor League Righthanded Arms — David Davalillo, Leandro Lopez, Winston Santos, Emiliano Teodo
Davalillo and Lopez were added to the 40 man roster after the 2025 season. Santos and Teodo were added after the 2024 season. None of them have pitched well since they got added, and if they were not on the 40 man roster currently, they would almost certainly not be added this offseason.
Davalillo is a control artist who, for much of 2026, failed to throw strikes, and had a 4.59 ERA in 1000 innings between four levels in 2026, mostly at Frisco and Round Rock. Lopez missed three months of 2026 and was awful when he did pitch for much of the season, though he put up a 1.15 ERA and 431 OPS allowed in his final eight appearances, working mostly in relief. Santos missed most of 2025 due to injury and put up a 6.80 ERA in 25 appearances covering 83.1 innings between Frisco and Round Rock in 2026, as well as getting a couple of emergency call-ups to the majors, with Santos allowing two runs in one inning in his one major league appearance. Teodo also missed most of 2025, and while his surface numbers for Round Rock in 2026 were better — 3.73 ERA, 4.71 xERA, 4.50 FIP — he was still walking batters at a 16.8% rate. To put that in context, none of the 389 major league pitchers who threw at least 40 innings in 2026 had a walk rate higher than 15.3%.
Santos, who turns 25 next season and is coming off two straight disappointing seasons, would seem to be the guy most in danger of losing his roster spot. Lopez and Teodo are would seem to be the safest, as they have the stuff to potentially be quality bullpen arms, and Lopez, as noted above, pitched well over the last six weeks or so working out of the pen.
Oh, Yeah, He’s Still Here — Michel Otanez, Michael Helman
The Rangers claimed Otanez on waivers last November. He was optioned to the minors early in spring training, was designated for assignment in June, went unclaimed, was outrighted, and then was added to the 40 man roster and brought back up for one day in mid-September. The Rangers initially sent him back to Round Rock the next day, but that move was negated when he had to go on the injured list with an undisclosed viral illness. Otanez was bad for much of the year, but improved over the final month or two. Still, with no options remaining and the fact he’s been outrighted once before, I can’t see him sticking on the 40 man roster all offseason.
Michael Helman turns 31 early next season, put up a .207/.296/.360 slash line in 42 games for Round Rock last year after putting up a .231/.294/.406 slash line in 71 AAA games in 2025. He had a nice run late last season for the Rangers, but had a .250 xwOBA that indicated it was fluky, and had a .167/.235/.300 slash line in 35 plate appearances in the big leagues this year (with a .200 xwOBA). If you have an open 40 man roster spot, he’s an acceptable depth piece who can be called up in an emergency to play some center field and pinch run off the bench, but he’s not someone who you are going to going through machinations to ensure you can keep him on the 40 man. He’s another guy I could see the Rangers non-tendering and then re-signing to a minor league deal.
Okay, got all that? You will be tested on this next week.
