The Texas Rangers are fortunate that most of the work assembling their Opening Day roster was pretty much done at the start of camp. The injuries in their rotation were already known, and because of the team's issues with getting their long-term TV revenue situation sorted, they clearly opted to largely stand pat this offseason early on.
Still, there is always a chance that a player could find their way on to the big league roster as long as they are in camp. As a result, monitoring the roster cuts that a team makes not only eliminates contenders for the few spots the Rangers do have available, but it also provides some guidance regarding the team's philosophy with how they are going to handle the early portion of the season in regard to managing minor league options.
On Thursday, the Rangers made a relatively small group of such cuts, and they included some names that were dark horse candidates to help the team out at the onset of the season.
Texas Rangers News: Owen White and Zak Kent optioned among spring training roster cuts
To be clear, there were no real surprises here as none of these players were projected to be on the Rangers Opening Day roster. Teodo is a highly regarded pitching prospect, but he hasn't played above High-A yet. Wolfram doesn't have the track to break into what is a pretty crowded Rangers bullpen at the moment.
As for Kent and White, both had outside chances at making the Rangers' rotation, but have been on the outside looking in all spring. White is the highest-ranked prospect in the group at No. 10 overall, but his cameo appearance in the big leagues in 2023 did not go well and he may need more time at Triple-A before Texas tries again there. Kent is an interesting depth arm, but was probably only going to get a chance if even more injuries befell what is already a very banged up Rangers rotation.
So far, everything has gone as expected with who the Rangers will employ on Opening Day, especially now that Adolis Garcia is playing in games again. How well Texas handles the current absences during the first half with the guys they have on the shelf is ultimately going to determine whether or not they will get the chance to defend their World Series title.