With the offseason underway, we are taking a look at every player who appeared for the Texas Rangers in the 2026 season.
Today we are looking at lefthanded relief pitcher Robby Ahlstrom.
Ahlstrom was another pitcher who made his major league debut in 2026, although he’s been on the radar for some time before that. Acquired on the eve of the 2022 season from the New York Yankees, along with Albert Abreu, in exchange for Jose Trevino,* Ahlstrom made it to Frisco in the second half of the 2023 season.
At that point, he started being discussed a possible major league bullpen option in the future.
* That was a trade that worked out poorly for the Rangers. That offseason, they had acquired Mitch Garver from the Twins for Isiah Kiner-Falefa (who ended up then being sent to the Yankees, where he was teammates with Trevino). Trevino and Jonah Heim competed that spring for the job of backing up/sharing time with Garver. At the time, it seemed like the smart move, given Garver’s injury history (and Trevino’s, for that matter) would have been to send the player who didn’t win the backup job to AAA, as Heim and Trevino both had options remaining. Instead, the club sent Trevino to the Yankees, with the organization indicating that they wanted to send Trevino somewhere he could play in the majors.
Garver, as it turned out, only played 42 games at catcher for the Rangers in his two seasons with the club, and Texas ended up playing Heim more than was probably ideal, with guys like Meibrys Viloria and Sam Huff and Sandy Leon and Austin Hedges getting more playing time than you’d probably have liked in those two seasons. Trevino had a really good 2022 season for the Yankees, putting up a 2.3 bWAR, being named to the All Star team and winning a Gold Glove. He was middling the following two seasons, was traded to Cincinnati, and is currently about to start the third year of a 3 year, $15M deal he signed with the Reds. In retrospect, the Rangers could have used him.
Along with Ahlstrom, the Rangers got reliever Albert Abreu, who was a Ranger for two months and one day before being traded to the Kansas City Royals for pitcher Yohanse Morel. Morel was released after the 2023 season by the Rangers, Abreu was waived by the Royals and claimed by the Yankees, was released by them after 2023, and other than a brief stint in AAA for the Reds in 2025, has been out of affiliated ball since then.
Ahlstrom split 2024 and 2025 between Frisco and Round Rock, putting up sub-2 ERAs for Frisco and sub-4 ERAs for Round Rock. His command problems, though — he had an 11.5% walk rate in the minors in 2024, and a 13.8% walk rate in the minors in 2025 — meant he didn’t get a look on the big league roster, and was left exposed to (and went unselected in) the Rule 5 Draft after both seasons.
Improved command at Round Rock to start the 2026 season — in the first two months of 2026, he walked just 8 of 116 batters faced for Round Rock, while striking out 33, allowing a .185/.241/.269 slash line — made him a more viable option than he had been in the past. And with the Rangers’ overall bullpen struggles, opportunities abounded for relievers to get chances in the big leagues. Ahlstrom was called up on June 1, when Gavin Collyer was sent down and Chris Martin went on the injured list, and got his first opportunity two days later, when he retired all four Cardinals hitters he faced — two on strikes — in a 5-3 Rangers loss.
Ahlstrom got off to a great start — he didn’t allow a run until his sixth major league appearance, and allowed just one run in 9.1 innings over his first nine appearances — but was not able to sustain that level of success. In an eight game stretch in late June and early July, he allowed multiple runs in five outings, ballooning his ERA up to 7.07.
Ahlstrom went on a heater after the All Star Break, with his first 13 post-ASB appearances being of the shutout variety. Things then went sideways again, as he allowed 13 runs over 7.1 innings over 8 outings, including allowing five home runs.
The last of those outings saw him give up three runs, including two home runs, in an inning of work against the A’s on September 2. Ahlstrom pitched just four more times in the majors the rest of the season, being bounced up and down between Arlington and Round Rock, though he only pitched one more time in AAA.
For the season, Ahlstrom allowed a 6.08 ERA in 37 innings over 42 appearances, though with a 4.31 xERA and 5.18 FIP. From June 26 through the end of the season, Ahlstrom put up a 7.81 ERA and 5.88 FIp in 27.2 innings, walking 12, hitting three batters, striking out 28 and allowing seven home runs.
The gopher ball issues that cropped up late in the season are particularly notable, as Ahlstrom did a good job of keeping the ball in the park in the minors — even in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, Ahlstrom has allowed just 0.7 HR/9 in his 103.1 career innings. I’m not sure if it was a matter of Ahlstrom trying to be more aggressive in the zone to cut down on walks, or if something else was at work there.
Ahlstrom had significant platoon splits, with righthanded hitters pounding him to the tune of .257/.388/.514, though he wasn’t good enough against lefties, either, as they put up a .270/.299/.419 slash line against him. His control issues, though, manifested primarily against righthanders — he walked 13 and struck out 15 in 85 plate appearances against righthanded hitters, while he struck out 19 and walked 2 lefties in 79 plate appearances.
The good news is that Ahlstrom appears to have suffered from some bad luck in facing lefthanded hitters — he has a .250 xwOBA against lefties, compared to his .313 wOBA, and a .322 xSLG versus a .419 actual SLG. That would suggest that, surface numbers aside, he’s someone who should be able to be effective against lefties going forward. He had a .382 wOBA/.384 xwOBA against righties, so the whole spread between his expected and actual numbers comes from southpaws.
Statcast shows Ahlstrom as being excellent in regards to average exit velocity allowed and hard hit rate, though that would be more encouraging if his K and walk rates weren’t both below average. With a 94.4 mph average fastball velocity, he’s in the 49th percentile. He is a five pitch pitcher — unusual for a short relief guy — though his curveball and changeup both got pounded, with xwOBAs over .400. Not surprisingly, those are pitches he uses almost exclusively against righthanded hitters. His slider also got pounded by righthanders. Maybe Ahlstrom should see if he can try throwing a cutter — really, he needs something to neutralize, or at least not get hammered as hard by, righthanded hitters.
Ahlstrom is 27 and should have three options remaining. He showed enough, I think, that he’s going to get the opportunity to stick around for a while as an optionable bullpen arm, assuming he doesn’t fall apart. The ideal role for him in 2027 is to be in Round Rock as one of the first guys to get called up when the pen needs reinforcements. Unless he takes a big step forward, though, he’s not someone you want making 60 appearances in your big league pen.
Previously:
Nolan Kingham
Sam Haggerty
