3 players who Rangers will trade for a fresh start before Opening Day next year

The Texas Rangers ended the 2025 regular season in the most 2025 Rangers way by blowing a three-run lead and losing in ten innings to the Clelveland Guardians to finish the year at average.

At 81-81, the Rangers did not get close to meeting expectations and left a lot of the fanbase angry and players dumbfounded.

With that said, the offseason officially began on Monday and President of Baseball Operations Chris Young and the rest of the decision makers will have a lot of choices to make during the winter. In that stretch, there will be some much-needed subtractions in hopes to not repeat the past two seasons.

3 players who Rangers will trade for a fresh start before Opening Day next year

Jake Burger, 1B

Acquired last offseason, Burger was supposed to be the replacement for Nathaniel Lowe who was surprsingly still with the team when Texas decided to trade for Burger. Even though Lowe was traded away 11 days after.

A 29-year-old power hitter still under his arbitration years was coming off a sneaky 29 homer season with the Miami Marlins. Unfortunately due to several stints on the injured list, coupled with his inability to perform to his capabilities, the 2025 season ended with a platoon with Rowdy Tellez.

He will begin the offseason with wrist surgery to repair a torn tendon but should be well recovered in time. With that, he would be fine and ready to be sold if Texas decided to go away from Burger.

Josh Jung, 3B

The thought of trading Josh Jung is a painful conversation to have for some Rangers' fans given he came to Texas as a first-round draft pick in 2019 and was an All-Star during their 2023 World Series year.

However, Jung has dealt with injuries as well as a smattering of inconsistent performances the last two seasons. In 2025, it seemed to get worse for the 27-year-old Texan. During his 131 games this year, Jung hit .251 with just 14 home runs, 61 RBIs and a .685 OPS.

To add to the misfortunes, Jung was among the bottom 20th percentile in strikeout, walk, chase and whiff rate this year. Now this doesn't seem like a big value for a team to want to trade for but maybe he just needs a fresh start elsewhere.

Joc Pederson, DH

Another huge offseason signing for Young last winter, Pederson was coming off one of the best offensive seasons of his career with Arizona. He signed a two-year deal with Texas to fix the designated hitter issues Texas was faced with in 2024.

Pederson struggled mightily to start the year, hitting .134 in the first half of the season and recording only two homers and six runs driven in. He did come around in a positive direction in the second half but still finished the year hitting .181, 9 homers and 26 RBIs.

Texas would love to keep him on the roster and hope that the 2025 season was just a real down point for Pederson but the fact he's owed $18.5 million next year, it might be in Texas's best interest to find a suitable trade partner.