4 Texas Rangers who are playing their way out of the team's 2024 plans

Martin Perez

The Rangers' starting rotation should be in a good spot next season especially if the stars align and Jacob deGrom recovers reasonably quickly from Tommy John surgery. However, one name that appears to be heading for the door given his lack of production is long-time Ranger Martin Perez. Boy does offering him a qualifying offer seem like a bad decision in hindsight these days.

In fairness to Texas' front office, Perez was coming off his best season as a pro in 2022 with a 2.89 ERA and 3.8 fWAR in almost 200 innings. The Rangers wanted to keep him around and hope he would run back one more season like that which would make that nearly $20 million one year deal more than worth it. Sadly, Martin regressed back to his former self as he has posted a 4.85 ERA and 5.23 FIP in 111.1 innings in 2023. At the end of the day, there aren't usually any truly terrible one year deals, but Perez lack of swing and miss and his struggles this season should hopefully keep Texas from bringing him back for 2024.

Andrew Heaney

This is a tough one because Andrew Heaney's contract makes moving on from him a bit trickier. Before the 2023 season, the Rangers signed Heaney to a two year deal that included a $13 million player option for 2024. The hope was that he would be able to parlay his limited success with the Dodgers in 2022 into sustained production for Texas.

Unfortunately, that is not how things have worked out as Heaney has posted a 4.17 ERA in 23 starts for the Rangers this season. His walk rate jumping up has been a big factor in that, but there is a lot to be concerned about with the batted ball profile against him this season, too. Heaney will almost certainly exercise his player option which could make it difficult to move him, but if any front office can find a way to get a deal done...it is probably the Rangers' front office.

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