Struggling All-Star reliever could be key free-agent target in Rangers’ 2026 rebuild

Three years ago, right-hander Ryan Helsley burst onto the scenes with the St. Louis Cardinals to quickly make a name for himself aas one of the most dominant late-inning relief arms in Major League Baseball.

Heading into free agency off a less than stellar second half with the New York Mets following his mid-season trade to Queens, the buzz around Helsley might have taken a slight hit.

It doesn't mean he will go all winter without any sort of interest, quite opposite most likely, as relievers are highly-touted every offseason. As luck should have it, the Texas Rangers have quite a few bullpen spots open and are in desperate need of a lockdown closing services that Helsley provides.

Rangers can't be fulled by Helsley's second half of 2025

When the 31-year-old got traded to the Mets at the trade deadline this past summer, it really was a flip of the switch in a negative way for him.

Since his breakout season in 2022, Helsley has been a workhorse out the bullpen for the Cardinals. From 2022-24, he recorded three seasons of ERAs at 1.25, 2.45 and 2.04. He also recorded 19 saves, 14 saves and 49 saves in those seasons.

Then before he got traded over the summer he appeared in 36 games with St. Louis, recording 21 saves, 53 strikeouts, 25 walks, 3.00 ERA and a 1.39 WHIP in 36 innings. After the trade, Helsley gave up 16 earned runs in 20 innings of work to the tune of a 7.20 ERA.

Those numbers certainly aren't a positive way to end a season but it shouldn't erase the past couple seasons of nearly complete control while he's been on the mound with St. Louis.

Bullpen rebuild is that important and Helsley perfectly fits that bill

This will be the second straight season Texas needs to rebuild their bullpen from scratch after getting a string of one-year arms. Once free agency officially hits, likely sometimes near the end of this week, Texas will officially part ways with Hoby Milner, Shawn Armstrong, Chris Martin, Phil Maton and Danny Coulombe.

It leaves President of Baseball Operations Chris Young and new manager Skip Schumacher with a heck of a task ahead of them to fill those empty spots. Four of those are guaranteed to go to Robert Garcia, Jacob Webb, Cole Winn and Josh Sborz. But who else?

Since Jose Leclerc left following the 2023 season, the closing job has been a revolving door. Even before landing on Kirby Yates down the stretch in '24, they shuffled through a few arms before Yates won the job. Finding a closer is vitally important to the team's success and Helsley is a perfect fit.

Back in 2024, Helsley led all of Major League Baseball with 49 saves, was an All-Star and even finished within the top 10 (9th) in the National League Cy Young race.

It's not like Helsley will command much of a deal either. At this rate, he is projected to sign a short one-year deal around the $8-$10 million mark, which doesn't break the bank for a team trying to cut costs. Only concerning facet about a one-year deal is having to go through a potential rebuild after 2026 but in a era of yearly ebbs and flows from relievers, it shouldn't pose too much concern.