Texas Rangers Reportedly Willing to be Aggressive in Free Agency

As the GM Meetings get underway this week, Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels hinted that the club will be willing to pay for big free agents this offseason.

The GM meetings are underway in Scottsdale, Arizona this week and on Monday, Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels gave some intriguing insight into their possible plans for this offseason. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News tweeted Monday night that “Jon Daniels’ tune on free agency sounds a lot more aggressive than had been so far intimated.”

While Texas had been expected to at least be involved in talks with some of the top free agents out there, namely Anthony Rendon and Josh Donaldson, nobody really knew how committed they would be to signing a big time player or two especially when it meant committing to long, big-money deals. While the Rangers have the room to play in terms of luxury tax space and plenty of spots to be filled on this roster, coming off a third consecutive season without postseason baseball doesn’t always scream to ownership, break out the checkbooks (unless you’re the Dodgers, Yankees or Red Sox).

A fair estimate was that the Rangers would add around $40 million to their current payroll which would mean probably a couple of upper-mid tier free agents and some flyers. The most heavily linked guys were Josh Donaldson and Hyun-Jin Ryu who, while being great players that would instantly make Texas better, are not franchise caliber talents. Donaldson, coming off a great year, is still almost 34 and won’t be around for 5+ years. Ryu was exceptional this year, leading the NL in ERA. But he has some very big injury red flags that mean he’s high risk, high reward.

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Perhaps when Daniels said what he did, he meant that Texas would walk away with a couple of quality, upper-mid tier players. But considering it was significant enough for Grant and other Rangers’ beat writers to comment on it, it seems the Rangers could be gearing up for a big time splash or two. They’ve been pretty straight forward in past offseasons about what their plans were with free agency. Last year they pretty much told fans that Texas was not going after the big name guys and they didn’t. If we take that precedent, these likely aren’t just empty comments.

It remains to be seen if they can walk away with one of the elite players on the market. Even if the Rangers are aggressive in pursuit of Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg or Anthony Rendon, they aren’t the only suitor. However, even if they walk away empty handed this year, these comments allude to a bigger belief within the organization that Texas is trending in the right direction and on the cusp of being competitive. That’s a huge step in confidence and something for fans to get excited about along with the hopes and dreams of an elite player in Arlington next season.