Rangers Unlikely To Have Payroll Room For J.T. Realmuto

The Rangers non-tendered catcher Jonah Heim, which means they are on the lookout for more catching. The top free agent available is J.T. Realmuto but columns today from Ken Rosenthal and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic as well as Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News both suggest the club doesn’t have the payroll space to sign him.

Without Heim, the Rangers are down to two catchers on their 40-man roster. Kyle Higashioka is a solid player but he turns 36 years old in April. He has started between 68 and 77 games in four straight seasons. He can be part of the club’s catching corps next year but should have someone to share the workload. The other catcher on the roster is Willie MacIver, a 29-year-old waiver claimee with 33 games of big league experience. He is still optionable and would ideally be in Triple-A as depth.

Realmuto would certainly be a nice addition. He has been arguably the best catcher in baseball over the past decade. He is now about to turn 35 years old and isn’t at his peak but he’s still a solid contributor. In 2025, he had average-ish offense, stole eight bases and got mixed reviews for his glovework. All together, it was worth 2.1 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs. He’s averaged a bit above two wins per year for the past three years.

Though he’s the top free agent out there, his earning power is capped by his age. MLBTR predicted him for a $30MM guarantee over two years. It’s possible he can secure himself a third year at a similar average annual value. The fact that a deal like that is too rich for the Rangers’ blood doesn’t bode especially well but they will have other options.

Both of the columns linked above mention Victor Caratini and Danny Jansen is more realistic free agent targets. MLBTR predicted Caratini for a two-year, $14MM deal and had Jansen as an honorable mention on the Top 50 Free Agents list. The 32-year-old Caratini has spent the past two years with the Astros. The switch-hitter was above average from both sides of the plate in those years, though his defense was more questionable. Jansen, a righty swinger, was also decent at the plate in 2025 but with some shaky defensive metrics.

There’s also the trade market. Both aforementioned columns speculate on various possible trading partners. Grant specifically calls out Carter Jensen of the Royals as a player the Rangers have long been interested in. Jensen is one of the top Royals’ prospects and one of the top catching prospects in the game. He hit .290/.377/.501 in the minors this year and then .300/.391/.550 in a 20-game major league debut. He just turned 22 in July.

The Royals probably don’t have a ton of interest in trading him, though there’s at least a case for them to consider it. They have Salvador Perez signed through 2027. He has been spending more time as a first baseman and designated hitter in recent years but has still been catching about 90 games per year for Kansas City. Jensen could share the catching duties with Perez but the Royals also have another strong catching prospect lurking. Blake Mitchell was the eighth overall pick in 2023 and will likely start 2026 at Double-A.

Since the Royals need upgrades and don’t appear to have a ton of spending power, perhaps they would consider trading from a position of relative depth, but that doesn’t mean they’d give Jensen away. Grant speculates that the Rangers might have to give up a prospect of similar value such as Sebastian Walcott.

There are a few other options available to the Rangers. Grant also speculates that they could go after a short-term solution, such as Ryan Jeffers of the Twins or Joey Bart of the Pirates. The Rangers used their 2024 first-round pick to nab Malcolm Moore but he has struggled at the plate and hasn’t climbed higher than High-A, so won’t be helpful for a while. Jeffers is controlled for just one more year and Bart two, so a player like that could serve as a bridge to Moore or at least buy the Rangers some time.

Time will tell how the Rangers play the catching situation specifically but the larger takeaway about the budget is perhaps not great for fans. For a few months now, the signs have been piling up that the club won’t have a ton of spending capacity for building out the 2026 roster. Back in September, the club parted ways with manager Bruce Bochy. At the time, president of baseball operations Chris Young stated that part of the cause of that split was that they didn’t have a clear plan for 2026 due to financial uncertainty. Pitching coach Mike Maddux departed for the Angels and it’s been speculated that might have been motivated by similar circumstances. The Rangers non-tendered Heim but also Adolis García, Josh Sborz and Jacob Webb. García was expected but Sborz and Webb were projected for salaries barely above the league minimum. Then the club traded Marcus Semien to the Mets for Brandon Nimmo, a move that involved taking on more money overall but saved them a few million annually.

After the deal, Nimmo said he was assured by the Rangers that they are not rebuilding and plan to compete, but it appears they will be trying to do that while spending less. RosterResource projects them for about $169MM in spending next year. That’s well below last year’s $224MM. In addition to bolstering their catching group, they need to rebuild the bullpen and shake up the lineup. Their apparently inability to go after Realmuto may be a bit of a moot point in a sense, since many expect him to re-sign in Philadelphia regardless, but it appears to be yet another sign of a tight budget in Texas going into 2026.

Photo courtesy of Kyle Ross, Imagn Images