The Rangers should avoid this  All-Star catcher who may be available at the deadline

One thing that we, along with several other outlets, have harped on over the last several weeks as the trade deadline approaches is that the Rangers need to upgrade at the catcher position if they want to seriously compete for postseason play. The club has been really bad at backstop, both offensively and defensively.

Big offseason signing Danny Jansen has been MIA with a right forearm strain for the last two months and unproductive when he plays. Kyle Higashioka is slashing .220/.299/.371 and is 69th out of 74 catchers with a -3 caught stealing above-average mark. Elias Diaz hasn't played enough to qualify.

It is definitely an area of need, and several names have been bandied about as potential upgrades at the position. The Dodgers' backup, Dalton Rushing, is a long shot. The name that keeps popping up lately is the Orioles' Adley Rutschman. It may seem like a great idea to sign the three-time All-Star, but a closer look at his numbers lately reveals a catcher who could be on the decline.

The Rangers will be tempted by a big, shiny name like Adley Rutschman, but they must resist the urge to bring him to Arlington

Rutschman blazed onto the scene as a rookie in 2022, clobbering 13 homers and racking up 42 RBIs in just 398 at-bats. He amassed a 5.4 single-season bWAR while finishing second in the ROY voting. He followed that season up with an even more impressive sophomore campaign with 20 long balls and 80 RBIs and made the first of three All-Star appearances. From 2022 to 2024, Rutschman played in 309 games and had 1,557 at-bats. That's a huge number for a catcher.

Since the 2024 season, however, Rutschman's productivity has regressed to what appears to be closer to the mean. Injuries have already started to take their toll, limiting him to 563 at-bats over the last year-and-a-half. In 2025, Rutschman hit .220 and drove in just 29 runs. This year, he is slashing an average .253/.327/.436. Since May 1, he's hit a pedestrian.220/.303/.363.

Rutschman is still only 28 years old, but players who wear the tools of ignorance tend to have shorter careers with all the foul tips and wild pitches. Just ask former Ranger manager Bruce Bochy about that. The Baltimore catcher is in a downward trajectory that will cost the Rangers more than it should if they're basing it on his production from 2022-2024.

He is still an elite defensive backstop, ranking second in caught stealing above average with a 41% success rate, but the prowess behind the plate still wouldn't justify giving up a Sebastian Walcott or Caden Scarborough, who would be the first two assets the Orioles would ask about.

It just feels like Rutschman is settling into the 2.5 to 3.0/season bWAR kind of catcher who is no longer able to give you 500+ at-bats in a season - or even 400 for that matter. They are good marks, but not game-changing.

Rutschman was being billed as the next Ivan Rodriguez after his first three seasons. Still, those days seem to be getting much smaller in the rearview mirror as the 1st overall pick of the 2019 MLB Draft settles into more of a platoon situation, which doesn't offer enough transactional value as his name might still suggest and/or carry. The likelihood is he stays in Baltimore anyway, and the only way the Orioles, who are just 2.0 games back of the final AL wild card spot, trade him away is if they are blown away.

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