One of the rites of the offseason is that, early on, we take a look at the players in the Texas Rangers’ organization who will have to be added to the 40 man roster this winter, or else be eligible to be selected by another team in the Rule 5 Draft. It is usually a lengthy post that talks about guys who are locks (or near-locks) to be added, guys who are potentially on the being-added bubble, guys who are longshots, and analyzes how likely a player who isn’t a lock to be added would be to be selected in the Rule 5 Draft.
I regret to inform you that’s not the case this year. The Rangers have few players who will be Rule 5 eligible who would get serious consideration for being added to the 40 man roster, and the likelihood of the Rangers losing a player in the Rule 5 Draft this offseason* would seem to be slight.
* The last time there was a lockout, in the 2021-22 offseason, they ended up canceling the Rule 5 Draft because of how little time there was between the end of the lockout and the beginning of the regular season. I would be willing to wager that we’ll see the same thing happen this time around…that said, we will assume that is is happening until they say it isn’t.
We did a State of the 40 Man Roster post a week and a half ago, in case you want to see where the 40 man roster stands now and who the bubble guys there are. And I am working off of Scott Lucas’s Rule 5 eligibility chart in looking at who is eligible.
Let’s go over the Rule 5 rules. A player signed at age 18 or younger — in other words, most (but not all) high school draftees and undrafted free agents and international free agents — are eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 Draft five seasons after they signed if they are not added to a team’s 40 man roster. A player signed at age 19 or older — pretty much every college player, and a few high school and international players — is eligible to be selected after four seasons if they are not added to a team’s 40 man roster. If a player is selected in the Rule 5 Draft,* he has to stay on the major league roster for a full season and accumulate at least 90 days on the active roster before he can be sent to the minors on an optional assignment. Otherwise, the player goes on waivers and, if he clears waivers, has to be offered back to the original team at half of the Rule 5 fee.
* The Major League portion of the Rule 5 Draft, anyway. The rules are different for the Minor League portion of the Rule 5 Draft, but you don’t have to add a player to the 40 man roster to protect them from the Minor League portion of the Rule 5 Draft.
The upshot of this is that high schoolers signed in 2022 or earlier, and international free agents signed in 2022 or earlier, will be eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 Draft this offseason if they are not added to the 40 man roster by November 17 of this year. College players signed in 2023 or earlier, as well as IFAs and high schoolers who were 19 or older when they signed, will also be eligible to be selected if they are not added to the 40 man roster.
The Rangers do not have many first-time eligibles this offseason. The Rangers did not have second or third round picks in 2023, due to signing Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom. Their first pick, Wyatt Langford, is already on the 40 man roster. Their fourth and fifth round picks, Skylar Hales and Alejandro Rosario, have been traded. Their sixth round pick, Caden Scarborough, was 18 when he signed, and is thus not Rule 5 eligible.
The best of the rest, as far as 2023 college picks go, are pitchers Izack Tiger, Paul Bonzagni, Josh Trentadue and Michael Trausch. Tiger has a great arm but can’t stay healthy, having thrown just 77.1 innings as a pro, including 27.1 innings with a 6.91 ERA between the ACL and high-A in 2026 after missing all of 2025. Bonzagni missed all of 2026 with an injury after pitching just 5 innings in 2025. Trausch is a reliever in low-A. Trentadue is a reliever in AA who put up a 5.65 ERA. None of them appear to be in danger of being selected.
The 2022 draft also featured missing second and third round picks. First rounder Kumar Rocker is already on the 40 man roster. Fourth rounder Brock Porter was Rule 5 eligible last year as a 19 year old high school draftee, went unselected, and after walking 60 in 76.1 innings in 2026, is almost certainly going be left exposed again this year. Fifth rounder Chandler Pollard didn’t hit in high-A this year. Sixth rounder Tommy Specht was released two years ago. Seventh rounder Luis Ramirez has spent the last two seasons on the injured list. 11th rounder Kohl Drake was traded.
In the 2022 international class, the Rangers’ two big signings were Anthony Gutierrez and Jose de Jesus. Gutierrez hasn’t been able to stay healthy, and his 2026 season ended in the second inning of Opening Day when he tore his ACL for Hub City. De Jesus was released in May of 2025.
The two players who are first time eligible who could possibly get some consideration — though still probably won’t be protected — are relief pitcher Ryan Lobus and first baseman Arturo Disla, each of whom was an undrafted free agent signed in 2023. Disla turns 26 this month and is a bat-only guy who was good but not great in his partial season at AA this year. Lobus is a 26 year old righthanded reliever who put up a 4.90 ERA and 4.24 FIP between AA and AAA in 2026, and whose stuff is fairly pedestrian. I doubt either is going to be added to the 40 man roster, or selected in the Rule 5 Draft.
There are a handful of players who are under team control through at least 2027 and who have been Rule 5 eligible previously, but most of them would not be in serious consideration for a roster spot. We mentioned Porter and Ramirez already. Ian Moller, Yeison Morrobel and Gleider Figuereo have all made it to AA, but none of them have shown enough to believe a team would carry them on the major league roster. Larson Kindreich missed all of 2026 with an injury. Thomas Ireland pitched for Frisco and Round Rock but is pretty much an organizational depth guy. Aaron Zavala finally spent a full season in AAA but didn’t hit much and is a corner outfielder with little defensive value.
Again, its possible that the Rangers will feel like they have 40 man roster spots to spare and feel, say, Morrobel has made enough progress and is young enough that they protect him rather than take the risk that someone chooses to take him, or Porter’s got enough potential that they don’t want to risk losing him now that he’s made it to AA. But it is more likely, I think, that none of this group gets added.
To the extent that the Rangers really have a tough call to make, it is on guys they will have to make the call on before the normal Rule 5 deadline, because it involves guys who will be minor league free agents at the end of the season. Players who were signed in 2020 become minor league free agents the day after the World Series ends.
The 2020 draft was only five rounds because of the pandemic, and the only player from that draft class still in the organization who isn’t on the 40 man roster is pitcher Dylan MacLean, who would not seem to be a candidate for a 40 man roster spot. The Rangers also signed that year, as undrafted free agents, Aidan Curry and D.J. McCarty. Curry has shown flashes, but is probably someone who, like Gavin Collyer last year, will be a priority to re-sign to a minor league deal rather than someone the Rangers will want to put on the 40 man roster.
The other notable UDFA signee from 2020 was Josh Stephan, who was traded to the Blue Jays in the Josh Smith/Adam Macko trade a couple of months ago. Stephan was almost certainly going to be allow to become a free agent, though I imagine the Rangers will have interest in bringing him back on a minor league deal, assuming the Jays don’t roster him.
The Rangers did trade for 2020 draftees Dane Acker and Trevor Hauver, and Acker has shown promise at times, but hasn’t been healthy and was terrible in the limited amount of time he spent on the Round Rock active roster this year.
Finally, we have international signees Wilian Bormie and Bryan Magdaleno, a pair of relievers who are slated to become free agents this winter.
Magdaleno was Rule 5 eligible after both 2024 and 2025. There was some unhappiness over Magdaleno being left exposed in 2024, as he had put up 1 .27 ERA in 42.2 innings, though mostly in low-A, with 68 Ks, 21 walks and just 19 hits. After going unselected, Magdaleno was terrible in Frisco in 2025, then bounced back with a solid, if unspectacular, 2026 season that saw him put up a 3.05 ERA in 56 innings, though with 38 walks against 77 Ks.
Magdaleno turns 26 in February. He’s a lefty, which is nice, but he has struggled to throw strikes, and the Rangers kept him in Frisco all year rather than sending him to Round Rock. He’s a possibility to be added, I guess, but I imagine he’s not getting a major league deal from anyone, and Texas will try to bring him back on a minor league deal if they want to keep him around.
If the Rangers add anyone, I suspect it would be Bormie. The righthander turns 26 in April, and has a quality fastball and slider but (as is often the case with these fringy reliever types) struggles with command. Bormie split the season between AA and AAA, and per Statcast, while at AAA, averaged 98 mph on his fastball. In 49 appearances covering 58.2 innings roughly evenly split between Frisco and Round Rock, he struck out 72, walked 31 and put up a 2.61 ERA, with his ERA being below 3 at both levels.
However, Bormie’s peripherals suffered once he got to AAA. His K rate at AA was 33.6% but was just 24.1% at AAA, while his walk rate went from 9.2% at AA to 15.0% at AAA. The result was a 4.97 FIP and 4.72 xERA in his 29 innings at AAA.
The Rangers faced a similar decision last offseason with Gavin Collyer, who they opted to let enter free agency and then re-signed to a minor league deal. Texas could go the same route with Bormie, betting that no team is going to offer him a major league deal (or a more lucrative minor league deal), or they could decide that there’s room on the 40 to carry him for the time being and eliminate any risk of losing him.
So that’s it. Not much excitement for us, I don’t think, in the run up to November 17. Maybe next year…
