It is always fun for the fans to bring a broom to the ballpark. It means the home team has a chance to sweep a series. In 2026, there were only two instances where the brooms were needed. They swept a three-game series from Kansas City in May and completed a two-game sweep of the Athletics on September 1st. Obviously, the broom was not a big player this season. But it should be this offseason.
It is time for the Rangers to clean house. Pull out the big offseason broom and sweep up this mess that has rendered a losing record in the three seasons since 2023. They have played 486 games since that glorious November day when hundreds of thousands lined the streets of Arlington for the victory parade. Their record: 239-247.
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The obvious question is, who? Who do you sweep out of here? I mean, the Rangers changed the manager and virtually the entire coaching staff after last season and finished one game worse this year than they did under future Hall of Famer Bruce Bochy. But since you can’t fire the players, do you fire the manager again? No, you do not. Skip Schumaker and his staff did so much right in 2026; you simply can’t pull the plug on this regime yet. The answer is complicated, difficult, confusing, frustrating, mind-boggling, expensive, and impossible until there is a new collective bargaining agreement.
As bold as it sounds, it is time to fire the players. Not all of them, obviously, but in building for the future, the Rangers must rid themselves of some contracts that would make rebuilding more difficult and some of the people who would want no part of rebuilding. Let’s start at the top of the financial tree. Corey Seager is only halfway through his ten-year, $325 million contract. The Rangers owe him $31 million per season through 2031. Here is where it gets complicated: last month, Corey earned 10-and-5 rights. He now has ten years in the league and five consecutive years with the same team, which gives him full trade protection. So any trade of Seager must be approved by him. That said, I believe he would waive the no-trade protection if the alternative were rebuilding.
Chris Young won’t be shy about asking, as we saw at the trade deadline last season when he asked Jacob deGrom to waive his no-trade status. deGrom negotiated full no-trade protection when he signed that 5-year $185 million dollar deal in 2023. But he gave thoughtful consideration to the idea of a trade when approached in July. He concluded that he would rather stay put, emphasizing that he believed the 2026 Rangers would make the playoffs. Spoiler alert: they did not make the playoffs. DeGrom would be easier to trade than Seager.
After all, he has only one year left on his contract; he is owed $37 million.
It all starts with those two huge contracts. If the Rangers are able to free themselves of those albatross-like contracts, they will have the freedom and flexibility to build a team around the youthful players that populate this roster. That being said, in my opinion, no one is untouchable. Not Wyatt Langford, not Josh Jung, or Evan Carter. From a position player standpoint, I would do everything I can to hold on to Sebastian Walcott, but anyone else is fair game. Give Schumaker the freedom to build the team in his image. He wants scrappy, hard-nosed players who will not be denied. Guys like Nicky Lopez, Brandon Nimmo, and Ezekiel Duran, aka The Solution.
On the pitching staff, I would have no interest in parting ways with Nathan Eovaldi. He is everything I want a young pitcher to be. He is a leader and a bulldog. He has spent a few seasons sharing that attitude/wisdom with Jack Leiter, Kumar Rocker, Jacob Latz, and Cody Bradford. Pitching is so hard to develop; I would be a bit more protective here. Leiter is borderline untouchable, and so is Latz. The greatest lesson of the last two years should be that it is necessary to spend some money on the bullpen.
Now for the mind-boggling part. None of this will be possible until the owners and the players agree to a new collective bargaining contract. The owners appear ready to take another shot at implementing a salary cap. The players have never, and swear they will never, accept such a thing. So this offseason will be uncomfortable; it will be ugly, it will likely inspire a delay in the start of next season, it will be a mess. So keep that broom handy; we will have a lot of cleanup before baseball begins again.
