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Skip Schumaker The Favorite To Be Rangers’ Next Manager

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The Rangers announced earlier in the week that Bruce Bochy would not return as manager in 2026 after his three-year contract drew to a close at the end of the current season. That’s created ample speculation about who’ll step into his shoes. President of baseball operations Chris Young perhaps tipped his hand at today’s end-of-season press conference when he revealed that the club hasn’t yet spoken to external candidates (link via Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News). Grant adds that former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, whom the Rangers hired as a senior advisor to the baseball operations department last offseason, is the current “focus” in the Rangers’ search for a new manager.

Schumaker, 45, had an 11-year playing career from 2005-15. Following his retirement as a player, he quickly jumped into the coaching ranks, hooking on a first base coach with the Padres. He eventually moved up to the position of associate manager in San Diego before being hired as the bench coach in St. Louis, where he’d spent the bulk of his playing career. After one season as Oli Marmol’s bench coach with the Cardinals, Schumaker was hired away as the new manager of the Marlins heading into 2023.

Schumaker’s Marlins surprisingly went 84-78 in ’23, narrowly sneaking into the playoffs as a Wild Card club. They were dispatched in short order by the division-rival Phillies, who swept the Wild Card series 2-0, but it looked like a nice step forward for the Fish all the same. Schumaker took home National League Manager of the Year honors for that performance.

The Marlins took a step back in 2024, however, as a newly installed front office opted not to add to the big league roster. Quite to the contrary, Miami wound up trading Luis Arraez to the Padres — in a package including 2025 breakout outfielder Jakob Marsee — in early May. By the time the trade deadline rolled around, the Marlins had shipped out a dozen players in a full dismantling of the team. Prior to the season, Schumaker and the Marlins had agreed to void his 2025 club option — a move reportedly borne out of some frustration from Schumaker over the ouster of general manager Kim Ng, who’d hired him a year prior. By season’s end, Schumaker’s looming departure was one of the worst-kept secrets in baseball. Miami hired Dodgers coach Clayton McCullough to take over the dugout, while Schumaker latched onto a new role in Texas.

Schumaker has now spent the past year familiarizing himself with the organization and building a rapport with Young, general manager Ross Fenstermaker and the remainder of the team’s operation. That experience would seemingly give him a leg up over external candidates if the Rangers went that route, but the fact that they’ve opted not to do so sends strong signals that Schumaker was already considered Bochy’s heir apparent.

If the Rangers ultimately choose to hand the dugout reins over to Schumaker, the 2026 season will be his third as a big league manager. He went 146-178 during his two seasons with Miami, although the Miami front office didn’t really set him up for much success in terms of wins and losses in that 2024 season.

MLBTR Podcast: Mike Elias On The State Of The Orioles

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias to discuss…

  • Elias’s promotion from general manager to president of baseball operations (1:45)
  • Why the Orioles underperformed in 2025 (3:30)
  • The club’s lack of investment in free agent pitching (5:25)
  • The decision making about playing time for prospects when they don’t find immediate big league success (9:20)
  • How Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo can co-exist on the roster (12:35)
  • Getting six prospects from the Padres in the Ryan O’Hearn and Ramón Laureano trade (14:50)
  • Trading Bryan Baker to the Rays for a draft pick (16:55)
  • Seeing the potential in O’Hearn before his breakout (18:45)

Plus, Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors joins the show to discuss…

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman, Imagn Images

22 Players Elect Free Agency

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Now that the season is over, we’ll start seeing several players choose to become minor league free agents.  Major League free agents (i.e. players with six-plus years of big league service time) will hit the open market five days after the end of the World Series, but eligible minor leaguers can already start electing free agency.

To qualify, these players must have been all outrighted off their team’s 40-man rosters during the 2025 season without being added back.  These players also must have multiple career outrights on their resume, and/or at least three years of Major League service time.

We’ll offer periodic updates over the coming weeks about many other players hitting the market in this fashion.  These free agent decisions are all listed on the official MLB.com or MILB.com transactions pages, for further reference.

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Utility Players

Pitchers

Bruce Bochy Will Not Return As Rangers Manager Amid Financial Uncertainty

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The Rangers announced this evening that the club and Bruce Bochy have mutually agreed that Bochy will not continue in his role as manager of the club next year. The announcement adds that Bochy has been offered a front office role to remain with the organization in an advisory capacity. As relayed by Jeff Wilson of DLLS_Sports, president of baseball operations Chris Young told reporters on a call this evening that they plan to focus on youth amid financial uncertainty and the sides decided to part ways due to the lack of a clear picture for the 2026 season.

Bochy, 70, has 28 seasons of managerial experience under his belt at this point after getting his start with the Padres back in 1995. He won the NL Manager of the Year award in 1996 and led San Diego to a 98-win season and an NL pennant during the 1998 season, but the club generally struggled throughout the remainder of his tenure until he departed the organization during the 2006-07 offseason to join the division-rival Giants in San Francisco. Bochy rose to his current status as one of the most respected managers in the game during his tenure in the Bay Area, famously leading San Francisco to three World Series titles in five years from 2010 to 2014.

The Giants tried to recreate that even year magic by returning to the postseason in 2016, but fell to the eventual World Series champion Cubs in four games. Bochy’s final three years as the club’s skipper saw them fail to make the postseason with 98-, 89-, and 85-loss campaigns. Bochy stepped away from managing following the 2019 season, making way for Gabe Kapler to take over as manager in San Francisco. With three World Series rings and more than 2,000 wins as a manager in the majors, it seemed as though Bochy’s career in the dugout was coming to a close.

That changed during the 2022-23 offseason, when the Rangers coaxed Bochy out of retirement to take over the helm of their franchise. Texas had signed Corey Seager and Marcus Semien to hefty contracts the prior offseason, but a 94-loss season did not see the club reap the rewards of those superstar signings. Ownership clearly felt new leadership was needed, as Young was installed as president of baseball operations while Chris Woodward was fired during his fourth season as manager. That new leadership turned out to be Bochy, and his first year with the club saw him lead them to greatness. The 90-win 2023 Rangers followed in the footsteps of the 2014 Giants as they failed to secure a division title but went on to achieve something far greater when they were crowned World Series champions.

Unfortunately, that championship was not the start of a period of sustained success. The Rangers has hovered around .500 in each of the past two years, with a 159-165 record in that time. They finished with an 81-81 record this year, six games out of a playoff spot despite the club’s decision to push forward and buy at the trade deadline despite the fact that the decision would push them over the luxury tax, which was known to be something the Rangers were hoping to avoid dating back to October of last year.

Given that the team has failed to make the postseason in each of the past two years and very clearly went over budget this year, it’s not exactly shocking that the Rangers would be looking to take a step back of sorts. Texas has around $131MM in guaranteed contracts on the books for next season according to RosterResource, and that number will jump to around $150MM once Joc Pederson picks up his $18.5MM player option for the 2026 season after a campaign marred by injuries and ineffectiveness.

The vast majority of that money is tied up in just four players: Seager, Semien, Jacob deGrom, and Nathan Eovaldi. While those expenditures weren’t too onerous for a team that was spending in the $240MM range annually, as the Rangers have since the start of the 2023 season, a pullback in terms of payroll would leave less room to maneuver around those hefty contracts. It’s unclear just how much payroll is expected to go down at this point, but the club’s previous high-water mark prior to the past three seasons (according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts) was in the $175MM range. With $150MM on the books already for 2026 before considering arbitration raises for players like Jonah Heim and Josh Smith, it’s at least possible that Young and the front office will be facing a significant budget crunch this winter.

Scaling back payroll doesn’t necessarily have to mean a full rebuild, and Young explicitly emphasized that the club is not intending to embark on a rebuild. That makes sense, given that exciting young talents like Wyatt Langford, Evan Carter, Jack Leiter, and Kumar Rocker are already in the majors with MLB Pipeline’s #4 prospect Sebastian Walcott potentially on the radar to make his big league debut as soon as next season. Good health from stars like deGrom and Seager in conjunction with steps forward from those young players could easily be enough to lift this Rangers team to the postseason next year even with only minimal additions, though it goes without saying that a lot would have to go right for an 81-81 team to substantially scale back payroll while simultaneously improving enough to make it back to October the following year.

From that perspective, the mutual parting of ways between Bochy and the Rangers makes plenty of sense. Bochy’s already stepped away from managing once and may only want to manage a club with genuine expectations at this stage of his career, if he isn’t considering retiring altogether. The Rangers, meanwhile, could perhaps benefit from a younger, more long-term voice in the dugout as their young players reach and develop in the majors. Young told reporters (including Wilson) that he expects the next manager of the Rangers to have roots in player development before adding that Skip Schumaker is a candidate for the job.

That Schumaker would be in the conversation to take over for Bochy is hardly a surprise. Will Venable had served under Bochy as associate manager during his first two years with the Rangers and seemed likely to be the veteran skipper’s successor at some point, though any such plans were dashed when Venable took over as manager of the White Sox last winter. Once Venable exited the organization, the Rangers brought Schumaker in as a senior advisor to the baseball operations department. While Schumaker’s role was not that of a member of the coaching staff like Venable, his well-regarded tenure as manager of the Marlins makes him a somewhat obvious choice to take over for Bochy as far as internal candidates go.

Jake Burger To Undergo Wrist Surgery

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Rangers first baseman Jake Burger will undergo surgery to repair a tendon sheath in his left wrist later this week, he tells Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. The injury originally occurred in mid-August. There’s no firm timetable on the recovery process, though Grant likens the forthcoming procedure to the surgery Josh Jung had following the 2024 season, and Jung was ready for spring training.

Burger, 29, joined the Rangers via trade after president of baseball Chris Young brought him over from the Marlins during last offseason’s winter meetings — a swap that sent infielder Maximo Acosta, infielder Echedry Vargas and left-hander Brayan Mendoza back to Miami. The acquisition of Burger, much like the signing of Joc Pederson, was intended to improve the Rangers’ teamwide production against fastballs after a down year in that regard in 2024. That didn’t pan out, however, despite the slugger’s prior excellence against four-seamers.

Though Burger had a terrific track record against velocity, headlined by hitting .302 and slugging .651 against four-seam fastballs with Miami in 2024, he hit just .195 and slugged only .416 against four-seam fastballs in his first season with Texas. Overall, Burger’s .236/.269/.419 batting line was the worst of his career and about 11% worse than that of a league-average offensive player, per wRC+. His 90.4 mph average exit velocity was a career-low, as was his 13.6% homer-to-flyball ratio.

That August wrist injury surely played some role in his offensive downturn, but it’s not the lone culprit. Burger tells Grant that he received a cortisone injection at the time of the injury, which helped for a few weeks before he began feeling his tendon “popping” in his wrist for the season’s final few weeks. Unsurprisingly, Burger finished the year in a pronounced slump. He also dealt with injuries prior to that wrist issue, however. Burger missed time with a strained left oblique back in June and was sidelined by a quadriceps strain the following month.

Even before his injuries, Burger’s struggles were glaring enough that Texas optioned him to Triple-A at the beginning of May. He’d opened the season in a .190/.231/.330 swoon and fanned in nearly 30% of his plate appearances. A .254/.284/.453 slash and 22.4% strikeout rate in 268 plate appearances following his recall was an obvious improvement but still not up to Burger’s prior standards. He’s never been a disciplined hitter, but Burger’s walk rate cratered to 3.2% in 2025. That was the third-lowest mark among the 277 players who reached 300 plate appearances. Burger also had the ninth-highest chase rate on pitches off the plate and the 16th-highest overall swing rate in that set of hitters, per Statcast.

Ideally, better health and a fresh slate in 2026 will bring about better results. The Rangers will certainly be hoping as much. Burger is controlled for three more seasons and is slated to reach arbitration for the first time this winter after falling five days shy of Super Two status last offseason. For now, he projects to be back atop the team’s depth chart at first base in 2026 as well, though a further shakeup of the team’s offense is possible after another playoff miss.

Rangers Claim Dom Hamel

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The Rangers have claimed right-hander Dom Hamel off waivers from the Orioles, as per announcements from both teams.  Hamel has been optioned to the Rangers’ Arizona Complex League team, and second baseman Marcus Semien was moved to the Texas 60-day injured list to make space for Hamel on the 40-man roster.

A third-round pick for the Mets in the 2021 draft, Hamel made his MLB debut in the form of one scoreless inning in New York’s 7-4 loss to San Diego on September 17.  That first game kicked off a busy 11-day stretch for Hamel, who has now changed teams twice via the waiver wire.  The Mets designated Hamel for assignment the day after his debut, and the Orioles claimed him off waivers, only to DFA Hamel again on Thursday.

The right-hander now heads to the Rangers and a familiar locale, as Hamel played his college ball at Dallas Baptist University.  Hamel has all three minor league options remaining, which could help his chances of remaining on the 40-man roster throughout the offseason and making it to Spring Training to compete for a bullpen job.

Over 192 1/3 career Triple-A innings, Hamel has a 6.27 ERA.  He has had trouble keeping the ball in the park at the top minor league level, but he has decent strikeout numbers and his walk rate improved greatly in 2025.  Hamel also started working as a reliever more often this year, so a long relief or swingman role might be in the cards as the righty looks to carve out a niche as a big leaguer.

Semien hasn’t played since August 21, due to a Lisfranc sprain and a fractured third metatarsal bone in his left foot.  The move from the 10-day IL to the 60-day is just a paper transaction as Semien wasn’t going to play again anyway in 2025, especially now that Texas has been eliminated from the playoff race.

Rangers Promote Jose Corniell

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The Rangers made a few moves going into their final series in Cleveland. Texas selected infielder Donovan Solano onto the major league roster. He takes the spot of utilityman Josh Smith, who goes to the paternity list. Texas also shut down relievers Chris Martin (thoracic outlet syndrome) and Cole Winn (rotator cuff strain) for the season. Luis Curvelo and Jose Corniell were recalled to fill the two open spots on the pitching staff.

Solano signed a minor league deal with the Rangers three weeks ago. He’d been released by the Mariners after hitting .252/.295/.344 with three homers through 176 plate appearances. He hit .212 in 10 games with Triple-A Round Rock. The veteran infielder will return to free agency at the end of the season. He’ll provide a right-handed bat off Bruce Bochy’s bench against the Guardians in the interim.

It’s a more meaningful call for the 22-year-old Corniell. The Dominican-born righty reaches the big leagues for the first time. The move is technically a recall because Corniell has occupied a spot on the 40-man roster since the 2023-24 offseason.

Initially a Mariners signee, Corniell was traded to Texas for reliever Rafael Montero before the ’21 season. The 6’3″ righty had never thrown a minor league pitch. He’d signed with Seattle during the 2019-20 international period, then saw his first professional season canceled by the pandemic. Corniell struggled over the next two seasons but had a breakout year in the low minors in 2023. Texas put him on the 40-man roster to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.

Corniell blew out early last season. He underwent UCL surgery in June and was on the injured list until shortly after this year’s All-Star Break. He made six abbreviated starts at Double-A and dominated. Cornell turned in 20 innings of two-run ball (one earned) with 20 punchouts and one walk. Texas bumped him to Triple-A, where he recorded 12 1/3 frames with five runs allowed. He fanned 14 while issuing six free passes.

Jack Leiter is on the mound for tonight’s series opener. Texas hasn’t announced its starters for the final two games. They’d have Merrill Kelly and Patrick Corbin on their usual schedules. The Rangers aren’t playing for anything, but Cleveland is battling for a playoff spot and the AL Central title. It’d be a surprise if the Rangers scratched one of their veteran arms to give Corniell the ball in that context. He could get a chance to make his debut as a long reliever if one of the games is a blowout.

Martin’s season concludes with a thoracic outlet syndrome diagnosis. The 39-year-old from Arlington signed a one-year free agent deal to rejoin his hometown team last winter. He pitched well when healthy, working to a 2.98 ERA through 42 1/3 innings. This is his third injured list stint of the season. He missed time earlier in the year with shoulder fatigue and lost all of August to a calf strain.

The Rangers haven’t provided any specifics on the severity of the injury. Martin said last September that he expected 2025 to be his final season. If this is the end, he’ll finish his career with a 3.33 earned run average across 10 seasons in the big leagues. The highly respected righty recorded the 400th strikeout of his career last night, fanning Minnesota’s Austin Martin.

Rangers Select Billy McKinney

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The Rangers announced that they have selected the contract of outfielder Billy McKinney. He’ll take the active roster spot of fellow outfielder Wyatt Langford, who has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a left oblique strain. Outfielder Sam Haggerty has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot for McKinney.

Langford has been battling side tightness for a few days now. He didn’t play on Friday or Saturday, before returning to the lineup Sunday. He then departed yesterday’s game, again due to side tightness. The Rangers were officially eliminated from playoff contention last night, meaning there’s no longer any need to try to stay on the field. Langford will therefore spend the final few days of the season on the IL.

That gets McKinney back onto the Rangers’ roster. He spent a few days with the club in July, getting into two games and stepping to the plate eight times. He went 1-7 with a walk. He was then designated for assignment and elected free agency before re-signing with the club on a new minor league deal.

He has been playing decently in the minors but that’s nothing new for him. He has always performed well on the farm, which has gotten him plenty of big league chances that he hasn’t been able to capitalize on. He has spent time with the Yankees, Blue Jays, Brewers, Mets, Dodgers, Athletics, Pirates and Rangers, getting in 323 big league games. In his 951 plate appearances, he has a .208/.283/.384 batting line, which translates to a 79 wRC+. He can be retained for 2026 via arbitration but is probably just up to cover for a few days and will likely be removed from the roster in some fashion in subsequent weeks.

As for Haggerty, he landed on the 10-day IL in mid-August due to left ankle inflammation. He started a rehab assignment over a week ago but only got into two games, so he has presumably hit some sort of snag. He’ll finish the season on the 60-day IL. Like McKinney, he can be retained for next year via arbitration but is a non-tender candidate.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images

Rangers Outright Carl Edwards Jr.

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September 23: Edwards was outrighted off the roster, reports Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News. It’s not clear if the veteran reliever will spend the final few days of the season in the minors or elect free agency and look ahead to next season.

September 19: The Rangers announced that right-hander Carl Edwards Jr. has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding move to open a roster spot for right-hander Tyler Mahle’s reinstatement from the 60-day injured list, a move that was reported earlier this week.

Edwards, 34, was selected to the roster just under two weeks ago. He made two appearances for the Rangers and tossed three scoreless innings, though in fairly low leverage scenarios when the club was trailing.

It’s been a bit of a nomadic year for Edwards. He signed with the Tigres de Quintana Roo of the Mexican League in March but then was able to get a minor league deal from the Angels a few weeks later. He was called up by the Halos in late April but was designated for assignment after just three days on the roster. He cleared waivers, elected free agency and went back to Quintana Roo to rejoin the Tigres. The Rangers then gave him a minor league deal in July.

Around all those transactions, he has a 4.50 earned run average in six big league innings and a 3.38 ERA in 74 2/3 Mexican League innings. He has also logged 50 2/3 minor league innings with a 4.44 ERA, 25.8% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 54.9% ground ball rate.

With the trade deadline having passed, he’ll be on waivers in the coming days. There isn’t likely to be much interest. The season has barely a week remaining and Edwards wouldn’t be playoff eligible with any claiming club. He’s an impending free agent, so there’s no long-term benefit to a claim. If he clears waivers, he has enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency.

Photo courtesy of Troy Taormina, Imagn Images

Rangers To Activate Tyler Mahle On Friday

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The Rangers will activate Tyler Mahle from the 60-day injured list for Friday’s series opener against the Marlins. He is listed as the probable starter against a yet to be announced pitcher for Miami. Texas has a full 40-man roster and will need to designate someone for assignment or transfer one of Marcus Semien, Nathan Eovaldi or Sam Haggerty to the 60-day injured list.

Mahle makes his return from a three-month shoulder injury. He landed on the injured list in the middle of June and was diagnosed with a rotator cuff strain a few weeks later. Mahle was shut down entirely for a few weeks and went over two months without getting into a game. He began a rehab assignment at Triple-A Round Rock in the beginning of September. He was bombed for five runs in an inning during his first appearance. He has since reeled off 6 1/3 scoreless frames with nine punchouts and three hits.

Texas will get a pair of starts from Mahle to finish the season. He’ll take on Miami and then one of Minnesota or Cleveland in the final week. It’s probably too late to make a difference in the playoff picture. The Rangers entered the week within a game and a half of a playoff spot. They had a chance to make up ground on the Astros, who were holding the last Wild Card position.

Houston instead ripped off a three-game sweep that probably drives the nail in the coffin. Texas has fallen 4.5 back of the Red Sox and Mariners (now tied for the AL’s last two Wild Card spots) with nine games to play. They’re two games behind the Guardians, who have the best chance to unseat one of the American League’s top six teams. The Rangers probably need to go at least 8-1 to have a shot at a playoff berth.

Mahle made 14 starts earlier in the season. He pitched to a 2.34 earned run average through 77 innings despite a modest 18.2% strikeout percentage. The 30-year-old righty has been injured for the majority of his two-year free agent deal. Texas knew Mahle would miss the first half of last season as he rehabbed from a May 2023 Tommy John procedure. He returned last August but only made it through three starts before being shut down for the year with shoulder discomfort.

Even if Mahle’s return doesn’t make a significant dent in the standings, he’ll welcome the opportunity to take on a pair of big league lineups before he heads back to free agency. He’ll be limited to one- or two-year offers again because of the durability questions. Mahle’s velocity has been down a tick in his Triple-A rehab work, though that’s probably attributable to his abbreviated ramp-up as he tried to get back on the mound for a playoff push.

On the minor league side, Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News writes that Kumar Rocker is scheduled to throw two innings for Round Rock tomorrow. The former third overall pick has not pitched in a Triple-A game since August 7. Texas instead has had him work on changing his release point outside of a game setting for the past six weeks. The Rangers are leaving the door open to recalling Rocker to the MLB roster before the end of the season. He opened the year in the rotation but was knocked around for a 5.74 ERA in a frustrating follow-up to last year’s promising return from Tommy John surgery.

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