Jeff Passan names ideal Rangers trade chip if the team sells at the trade deadline

It's still very much up in the air whether or not the Texas Rangers will be buyers or sellers at the 2026 trade deadline. The club is 7-3 over its last 10 games, has won three straight series, and sits just 1.5 games behind the Seattle Mariners for the division lead. With that said, the Rangers are still a game under .500, and are part of an incredibly high number of teams on the bubble at this point in the season.

When it comes to buying or selling, the calculus is a bit more complicated than solely looking at whether or not the playoffs are a legitimate possibility in 2026. Texas will need to evaluate whether or not it can truly make noise in October should it make the big dance. The organization will also need to evaluate when it's time to pivot to looking towards the future. With an aging core and a barren farm system, that time could come sooner rather than later.

With that in mind, ESPN's master MLB insider Jeff Passan suggests that if the Rangers are indeed sellers, Joc Pederson could be the first player to go. We can't say that we disagree with that assessment.

Joc Pederson is the Rangers' best trade chip should the club decide to sell at the trade deadline

Pederson seemed to be carrying over his brutal 2025 campaign into 2026 with a .225/.341/.324 line over the season's first month, but thankfully snapped out of his funk in May with a stellar .250/.364/.556 performance that finally resembled the patient slugger the Rangers thought they were getting when they signed him to a two-year, $37 million deal.

In particular, he's been deadly effective when batting out of the leadoff spot. Still, that hasn't been enough to consistently boost Texas's offense, which ranks 25th in baseball with 262 runs scored.

That doesn't mean that he can't be a coveted power upgrade for another team, however, and while there are other potential Rangers trade pieces like Nathan Eovaldi, Pederson is the only one that doesn't require a large financial commitment beyond this year.

That matters when it comes to receiving maximum value. Team control is great, but only when it's cheap. With that in mind, Texas's best bet to add impact talent to the pipeline is by trading Pederson.

The contract status matters for the Rangers, too. The club isn't likely to re-sign the 34-year-old this offseason, and likely could benefit from a more flexible approach to the DH position than a plodding former outfielder with no real defensive home. Pederson's free-agent market value is such that if Texas were to offer him the qualifying offer, hoping to score a draft pick, he might just accept and torpedo the chance to recoup value.

The other side of the coin is that we've rarely seen the Rangers' lineup at full strength this season. Now, with Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford back, the unit with Pederson might prove potent enough to make the postseason and do damage once they get there. That'll especially be true if Pederson continues walking and slugging ahead of Seager and Langford as he's done in their absence.

The Rangers will have a little less than two months to see how this new, fully healthy, batting order configuration can perform. If it doesn't work out, it makes all the sense in the world to send Pederson out to greener pastures.

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