Chris Young Discusses Rangers’ Bullpen Plans

The Rangers have made retooling their bullpen a priority after losing Kirby Yates, David Robertson, and José Leclerc to free agency at the start of the offseason. It’s an endeavor they’ve been largely successful in: Chris Martin, Robert Garcia, Jacob Webb, Shawn Armstrong, and Hoby Milner are all new additions who should help to steady the club’s bullpen in 2025. With that being said, though, it’s worth noting that the Rangers’ relief corps posted a 4.41 ERA last year even with Yates, Robertson, and Leclerc in the fold. That was a bottom-five figure in baseball, so merely replacing that production on the back-end would not be enough to make the club’s bullpen even league average.

It’s under that backdrop that president of baseball operations Chris Young commented (as relayed by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News) on the state of the bullpen during the club’s FanFest event yesterday and left the door open for another addition. While Young acknowledged that the club’s signings to this point are an improvement over what they had at the start of the offseason, he adds that the club is “going to need more than we have” over the course of the season.

“Some of that’s going to need to come internally with our player development, and some of it may be externally, but it’s our job to continue to look for ways to upgrade,” Young said, as relayed by Grant.

To that end, Young suggested the club is “staying open-minded” about the possibility of further bullpen upgrades. That he didn’t commit more strongly to another external addition could be a consequence of the club’s budget, as Grant notes the club is rapidly approaching the first luxury tax threshold of $241MM. The Rangers are known to be aiming to duck under that threshold this year to reset their penalties as a repeat offender, and RosterResource projects the club for a luxury tax payroll of nearly $235MM in 2025. That leaves just $6MM of breathing room below that first threshold, which isn’t likely to be enough to make another impact relief addition in a market where players like Leclerc and Andrew Kittredge are garnering $10MM salaries in free agency.

Grant suggests that the Rangers could look to explore the trade market as a way to move salary and make room for the addition of a closer while specifically name-checking righty Jon Gray and center fielder Leody Taveras as potential trade options. Gray is due $13MM in 2025, which is the final year of his four-year deal with the club, while Taveras avoided arbitration with the Rangers by agreeing to a $4.75MM salary for 2025. It seems unlikely that either player would be dealt as part of a pure salary dump given Taveras’s value to the club as a quality fourth outfielder and Gray’s fairly solid peripheral numbers last year, but both are coming off down seasons and might be difficult to trade for full value. Of course, it’s also possible that a trade could allow the club to add relief talent more directly, as swapping first baseman Nathaniel Lowe to the Nationals for Garcia did last month.

Should the Rangers make room in the budget to pursue another arm with late-inning experience, both Yates and Robertson remain available in free agency. Tanner Scott is the best reliever available on the market but seems unlikely to fall into the club’s price range. The same can likely be said for top right-handed reliever Carlos Estévez. Kenley Jansen offers one possible alternative to Yates and Robertson who could be available on a similarly short-term deal. The most affordable option available if the Rangers are hoping to add closing experience to the roster would likely be right-hander Kyle Finnegan, who was non-tendered by the Nationals back in November. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Finnegan for an $8.6MM salary in his final trip through arbitration and, while it isn’t completely unheard of for a non-tendered player to meet or even exceed their arbitration projection on the open market, it stands to reason that Finnegan is unlikely to land a contract significantly more lucrative than that figure.