Looking ahead to the Texas Rangers' 2024 payroll

It is hardly a secret that the Texas Rangers have been very aggressive in recent years and invested a lot of money in their payroll. Just at the trade deadline alone, they took on Max Scherzer's $40+ million AAV contract despite already having Jacob deGrom, Corey Seager, and Marcus Semien inked to nine figure deals as well.

However the 2023 season ends up, it is probably pretty fair to expect the Rangers to continue to remain aggressive in their quest to get back to the World Series while they have this core in place. There is a limit to how much they can spend, though, so here is a look at what the Rangers' payroll looks like for 2024 and how much room they actually have to make more moves.

Current projected 2024 Texas Rangers payroll

All Rangers payroll figures for the purposes of this have been pulled from Spotrac and are subject to change. Sometimes unknown incentives or details of contracts become public knowledge and can mess with the payroll along with options, buyouts, arbitration figures, and not tendering contracts to arbitration-eligible players. This is an initial glance, not the final numbers. One important figure to keep in mind is the luxury tax threshold which will be $237 million in 2024.

Total projected 2024 payroll: $172,750,000

Projected luxury tax payroll: $181,416,666

Variable Costs: The Rangers don't have much in the way of options that they have to plan for especially since Max Scherzer went ahead and exercised his player option for 2024 before he was traded to Texas. Andrew Heaney has a $13 million player option that seems like to be picked up and the Rangers have a $6.25 million club option for 2024 and the Rangers seem likely to keep him around as well.

The biggest source of uncertainty for the Rangers is in their arbitration eligible players. Nate Lowe is hitting his second year of arbitration and is likely to get a significant raise over this year's $4.05 million, although it shouldn't be too painful just yet. Adolis Garcia is hitting arbitration for the first time and will cost a few million as well.

What does the Rangers' current projected payroll mean for this offseason?

With the money currently allocated to Martin Perez, Jake Odorizzi, Jordan Montgomery, and a slew of relievers coming off the books, the Rangers are yet again in a position to be aggressive this offseason. This isn't exactly the ideal free agent to have a bunch of money available, but the Rangers can likely play in whatever part of the free agent market they want to.

However, they will have a certain amount of rebuilding to be done, so spreading money around may not be the worst idea. Texas has a lot of their bullpen set to hit free agency and will need to restock there. Plus, the Rangers' 2024 rotation looks very unsettled especially if Jacob deGrom's rehab takes a particularly long time. As a result, don't be surprised if Texas first tries very hard to keep Jordan Montgomery around.

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