9 Texas Rangers players who will not be back in 2024

The Texas Rangers are World Series champions for the first time in franchise history. After an incredibly improbable, fun, king-making World Series, the Rangers might be tempted to stay wrapped up in the joy and excitement forever, but there is still an offseason and a lot of free agents to worry about. A lot of seemingly disparate pieces managed to come together for Texas, and now it's time to sit down and see what worked, where they might need to trim the fat, and what still needs to improve. The nine guys on this list were involved in this year's postseason success to varying degrees (some not at all), but the departure of any/all will mean something to the club.

Here are 9 Texas Rangers players who won't be coming back in 2024

The Rangers have — count 'em — 13 unrestricted free agents this offseason, a player with an opt-out, and one with a club option. There are a few they'll gun to keep, but even more who they won't, and always a few who will decide to leave because better options might be out there. Any way these deals do shake out, the Rangers will be a fun team to keep an eye on ahead of the 2024 season.

Aroldis Chapman

If there's any word that can best describe Aroldis Chapman, 'dangerous' seems like a good one. There are a lot of ways you can look at it: he's dangerous to hitters not only because he can be the fastest throwing guy in baseball, but also because of the threat of getting plunked by one of those fastballs. He's also dangerous because his pitches sometimes reflect zero control, and he's prone to giving up some of the most poorly timed bombs in recent memory.

Evaluating Chapman's free agency is accordingly double-edged. His reputation will always precede him, but he also didn't do much for the Rangers' exasperating bullpen, and fellow closer Jose Leclerc not only pitched more innings but came out from them with a much lower ERA. Leclerc was also seen more in the postseason, and despite giving up three more runs than Chapman, it's clear that Texas' faith is and perhaps should be shifting toward Leclerc.

Chapman is one of many lefties Texas could be losing this offseason, but getting him off the payroll will free up millions of dollars for a different lefty who is dangerous, but more so in the good ways.

Martin Perez

After the Rangers moved into a solid four man rotation for the postseason, frequent regular season starter Martin Perez was moved into a relief role and saw only 4 2/3 innings of work, all in games the Rangers would eventually lose. It makes sense; Perez did decent work in the regular season but also made his 2022 season look more and more like a one-off. In 2022, he finished with a 2.89 ERA, his lowest ever, with 169 strikeouts (his highest ever) over 196 1/3 innings. In 2023, he finished with a 4.45 ERA, with 93 Ks over 141 2/3 innings, which looks much closer to all of his numbers prior to 2022.

Perez is the Rangers' third highest-paid pitcher, after Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom, which makes him the Rangers' highest-paid healthy pitcher. He accepted a $19.65 million offer for one year at the beginning of this season, and his numbers don't reflect him living up to that amount. Letting him walk would be the perfect way to free up a huge chunk of money to put toward arbitration-eligible players and postseason stars Nathaniel Lowe, Adolis Garcia, and Jonah Heim.

Will Smith

Will Smith (not the actor and not the Los Angeles Dodgers catcher) is currently making headlines for being the first MLB player to win three consecutive World Series with three different teams, despite not appearing in the postseason at all for the 2022 Houston Astros. In the 2023 postseason, Smith was Aroldis Chapman-levels of the bad kind of dangerous. Every time he took the mound, Rangers fans held their collective breath and hoped for the best. In Game 4 of this World Series, his 2/3 of an inning led to a scary hint of a Diamondbacks ninth-inning comeback when he became responsible for two runs off of a Gabriel Moreno single.

Smith is another lefty bullpen arm the Rangers will probably lose this offseason, but given the Rangers' reputation for having an absolutely abysmal, negatively game changing bullpen, the potential loss of so many could mean a fresh start next year. Smith is also another pitcher with a pretty absurd contract ($13.33 million this year) that will best be gotten off the Texas ledger.

Travis Jankowski

Travis Jankowski is in a similar boat to Robbie Grossman. He's a journeyman and a depth option for the Rangers outfield who put up solid but not exceptional numbers in the regular season and had a few productive at-bats in the postseason, including a two-run double in Game 4 of the World Series. Unfortunately, also like Grossman, it seems like the emergence of Evan Carter will leave Jankowski without a spot as well. The $1.25 million the Rangers paid Jankowski in 2023 may seem like a drop in the bucket for a $250 million team, but if the Rangers plan to keep going after high-priced free agents like they did with Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, they'll need all the money they can get.

He endeared himself to fans last year with the New York Mets, when a quote — "no one's wearing my jersey... [but] I understand my role and I’m happy to be in this role" — led his entire team to take the field in Jankowski shirts. It made the rounds on social media again this year, ahead of the Rangers World Series win, and hopefully things like that will help see that Jankowski has a future in baseball, even if it's not in Texas.

Mitch Garver

After being the guy behind some thrilling moments in the postseason, Mitch Garver's departure from the Rangers will be felt. He came second in RBI for Texas, which includes four runs off a grand slam in the ALDS. However, it just makes sense for the Rangers not to keep him. In the 2022 regular season, he only appeared in 54 games after he needed surgery in his forearm and went onto the 60-day IL in July. His appearances only went up a tic in 2023, with 87, either as DH or as backup to catcher Jonah Heim.

With Heim in arbitration this year and expecting a raise, it just makes sense to not keep Garver. On the DH side, Ezequiel Duran had a pretty good year first full year at the plate, slashing .262/.309/.417. Garver actually has him beat there, with .270/.370/.500, but he also had fewer plate appearances, is older, and will probably be asking for more than the $3.9 million the Rangers paid him this year, given his postseason heroics, all of which point to his departure from Arlington.

Jake Odorizzi

Oh, you didn't know Jake Odorizzi was on the Rangers? That's okay, no one else did either. Odorizzi came to the Rangers in Nov. 2022 from the Atlanta Braves, where he only pitched 46 1/3 innings and finished with a 5.24 ERA. He probably would've been pretty frequently seen as a mop-up reliever in Texas if he didn't go down with a right shoulder injury in April, which ended up needing surgery that kept him out for all of the 2023 season and sunk $12.5 million of the Rangers payroll.

Maybe this is too harsh, but letting Odorizzi go is a complete no-brainer. This year, with zero innings pitched, he made more money than Andrew Heaney, who put up 147 1/3 in the regular season. Not coming to the table with a pitcher who will just be coming off of injury represents another opportunity for Texas to cut some of the fat from their payroll and start rebuilding their inconsistent bullpen, which FanGraphs ranked 23rd in baseball this season.

Brad Miller

Brad Miller, like Jake Odorizzi, spent most of 2023 on the IL. He went onto the 10-day in June with an oblique strain, then spent two weeks rehabbing in Triple-A. He didn't make an appearance in the majors again until July 24, and then he promptly went down again on Aug. 2 with a hamstring strain. He tried rehabbing again, but was moved to the 60-day in early September. The guy who came up to replace him, whose presence on the Rangers will be responsible for many of its moves this offseason, was Evan Carter.

With Miller, it's all the same old thing. There's just not a place for him on the team anymore, if he's even able to come back from his latest injury. He's a rare utility guy with a lot of years in the majors, but he's also clearly injury-prone, making it wiser to give bench bat positions to some new blood than keep a wild card around.

Jordan Montgomery

We've entered into truly wonderful territory — Yankees fans very loudly ripping on their own team for what turned out to be a completely inaccurate assessment from the front office: Jordan Montgomery wouldn't be a good October pitcher. Not only was Montgomery a good October pitcher, he was good for all seasons, finishing with a career-best 2.79 ERA over 67 2/3 innings. In the postseason, where he was a key rotation piece, he had a 2.90 ERA with 17 Ks and pretty sick, run-saving defensive play to kick off the Wild Card series. Going into free agency, he's built more than a good enough case for himself as a pitcher who should make more than $10 million a year.

It feels unlikely that the Rangers won't try to keep Monty at all, rather that he'll choose to leave. After a trade to the St. Louis Cardinals marked a sour departure from New York, then an unceremonious trade to the Rangers, choice hasn't been a huge factor in his career for the past few years. Tim Britton of the Athletic projects that Monty could make $105 million over five years with the right team. Right now, he's holding all of the right cards, and he could have a fantastic free agency if he plays them well.

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