Texas Rangers: MLBTR’s projected arbitration salaries allow no excuse for penny-pinching

Texas Rangers‘ front office executives have made it abundantly clear: money is going to be spent this off-season as the team looks to turn a corner in 2022 off a doldrum of a year in 2021.

Whether you believe these claims or not is one question, but let the (projected) record show that the Rangers will in fact have the funds to support such ambitious off-season plans.

MLB Trade Rumors released their projected salary figures on Monday for each MLB team, with seven Rangers making the cut.

Texas Rangers aren’t projected to carry any major arbitration salaries according to MLB Trade Rumors

Those seven players are Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Matt Bush, Ronald Guzman, Jharel Cotton, Willie Calhoun, Brett Martin and Taylor Hearn.

Out of those players, Kiner-Falefa has the most expensive projected salary via arbitration on the active roster at just a shade under $5 million ($4.9 million).

So yeah, money should not be an issue for the Texas Rangers when it comes to off-season spending. In fact, it leaves little margin for error when it comes to Jon Daniels and Chris Young living up to their expectations of an active winter.

In total, the team has just $28 million on the books in payroll, with a large chunk of that number owing to salaries of departed players like Rougned Odor, Elvis Andrus and Kohei Arihara, who was DFA’d in-season.

The luxury tax threshold is set around $210 million, so that leaves approximately… $182 million in breathing room for the Texas Rangers this winter.

In other words, there should not only be a desire to spend, but actually making good on that desire by bringing in a Carlos Correa, Trevor Story or Corey Seager along with a starter or two like Clayton Kershaw and/or Noah Syndergaard. And while we’re at it, may we suggest a DH type like Kyle Schwarber or Nicholas Castellanos? After all, the Rangers’ lineup was downright putrid in 2021. We need all the help we can get.

The cheap ways of ownership from the last few years just won’t fly this off-season with limited salary committed to the payroll and an outward desire to start winning in Texas once again.

We won’t accept anything less than an active off-season, so strap in y’all!