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What Would It Take For The Rangers To Duck Under The Luxury Tax Line?

By Steve Adams | August 16, 2024 at 11:45pm CDT

The 2023 Angels entered the trade deadline as something of a long-shot contender but nevertheless embarked on an aggressive win-now push. In an effort both to break their postseason drought and perhaps to show impending free agent Shohei Ohtani a commitment to winning, the Halos went out and acquired Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, C.J. Cron, Randal Grichuk and Dominic Leone. It was a valiant, if not desperate effort, and it fell short almost immediately. By mid-August, the Angels were buried in the standings with virtually no hope of climbing back into contention. With the former August trade waiver system no longer in place, GM Perry Minasian and his staff waved the white flag in a new and more drastic way: they put more than one quarter of the roster on outright waivers.

By placing Giolito, Lopez, Cron, Grichuk, Leone, Matt Moore, Hunter Renfroe and Tyler Anderson on waivers, the Angels positioned themselves to A) save an enormous amount of money, B) potentially dip back under the luxury tax threshold (they succeeded), and C) impact several postseason races ... just not in the way they originally envisioned. For those who don't recall, the Guardians claimed Giolito, Lopez and Moore. Renfroe was claimed by the Reds. Leone went to the Mariners. Grichuk and Anderson were not claimed.

Last week, MLBTR's Darragh McDonald previewed a handful of veterans who could hit waivers in just this fashion later this month. Since Darragh wrote that piece, one team has emerged as an even likelier candidate to go down this road; as the Astros have gone on an eight-game winning streak and the Mariners have kept in arm's reach, the Rangers have fallen to a daunting 10 games back in the AL West and 10.5 back in the Wild Card hunt. FanGraphs gives the Rangers a 0.6% chance of reaching the postseason. Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA is more bullish ... at 2.4%. Texas isn't mathematically eliminated, but they're not far off.

As Darragh noted last week and as both Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Jon Becker of FanGraphs have explored this week, there's an argument that the Rangers should jettison some of their impending free agents and cut back costs. In his column, Becker looked at how much money the Rangers would save by placing their impending free agents on waivers two days before the Aug. 31 postseason eligibility deadline. Rosenthal noted within his column that there's no clear path to dipping under the luxury tax for the Rangers, "so their only motivation would be to save on salary."

Technically that's true, but it's also not impossible for the Rangers to duck under the threshold without placing their entire roster on waivers for the taking. While sneaking under the tax threshold is a tall order, it could potentially be done without completely decimating next season's roster. Let's take a look at how they could get there and at what type of benefits they'd receive for doing so.

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Front Office Originals Membership Texas Rangers Andrew Chafin Andrew Heaney Carson Kelly David Robertson Jon Gray Jose Leclerc Kirby Yates Max Scherzer Nathan Eovaldi Tyler Mahle

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View Comments (11)
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11 Comments

  1. sad tormented neglected mariners fan

    1 year ago

    Imagine the shockwaves of a Jacob degrom release would cause

    2
    Reply
  2. 30 Parks

    1 year ago

    Steve Phillips said it best – not trading Ohtani was “malpractice” on the Angels’ behalf.

    3
    Reply
  3. LordD99

    1 year ago

    Even with their cost, I could see the Yankees claiming Robertson and Yates if they hit the DFA wire.

    5
    Reply
    • Texas Outlaw

      1 year ago

      @LD99, I could easily see that. The Rangers have quite a few pieces the Yankees or Orioles could use.

      3
      Reply
    • rct

      1 year ago

      I agree but I don’t think both would get past the Mets. They only cost money and wouldn’t affect next year so I imagine the Mets would add whoever they could.

      1
      Reply
  4. THEY LIVE!!!

    1 year ago

    No mention of dropping Seager or Semien??

    Reply
    • Texas Outlaw

      1 year ago

      @TL they would 100% be claimed and are the heart and soul of the team. It would mean a complete reset. The fan base would be enraged and attendance would plumit. It’s already a bad season.

      1
      Reply
      • LordD99

        1 year ago

        Right. The Rangers would probably welcome some salary relief this year, but I fully expect them to be all in again for 2025.

        2
        Reply
  5. DonOsbourne

    1 year ago

    The Cardinals should do the same thing. Just to open roster spots and playing time for younger players. It might also give a couple of vets a chance to play for something yet this season. The money saved could help make up for the empty seats at home games.

    1
    Reply
  6. gilleb

    1 year ago

    Of course this bullsh*t article has stirred up the Yankees and Mets fans.
    Rangers owner Ray Davis has already announced they’re raising ticket prices for next season. If they do a salary dump on top of that, fans will revolt and all the goodwill from last year’s championship season will be lost. Chris Young is a Princeton guy and a Dallas native. I can’t see him doing anything like this story suggested.

    Reply
    • rct

      1 year ago

      Can it, loser.

      Reply

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