alvtimes said:

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I hate being a fan of an owner pinching pennies! Can we get a billionaire that cares more about winning than a couple million bucks??? I get it. its their money….. but my thoughts are dont buy in, then ask for community tax money if you dont plan on winning every single yr!

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Dude - Ray Davis net worth right at about $4B.

Amazing people here post about blowing through the cap and paying anything it takes to sign a fantasy team.

One thing you CAN NOT do is criticize Ray Davis for not writing checks.

What are you hearing around the office with the latest manager search?

How we feeling about signing a guy like Pete Alonso? I think he's just what we need at first base!

He was making $27mil/year with the Mets. Knowing that the Rangers are trimming back on salary, he might be out of their budget. It would make him the 3rd highest paid behind DeGrom and Seager if his salary remained the same.

Where did you hear we are trimming back on salary? I thought we were going to go over the tax this season? Anyone have any information on what the team plans to do with the tax this upcoming season?

It was discussed a couple of pages back, and has been reported by the beat writers over the past couple of days. Also rumors are that they didn't get under the tax this year so they have to reset next year (again discussed a couple of pages back).

Here are some posts around this:

https://texags.com/forums/53/topics/3563700/replies/70947966
https://texags.com/forums/53/topics/3563700/replies/70949158
https://texags.com/forums/53/topics/3563700/replies/70950764

Well that's a gut punch.

For the life of me, I don't understand the mystery of payroll versus the CBT. The league obviously has some kind of formula to calculate a team's payroll, but the estimates to where any club actually is has a multi-million dollar range between people reporting it.

The season is over. The Rangers know to the penny where they finished up, minus any bonuses for postseason awards. It would be cool if someone from the front office would come out and say what the number is now. I don't really understand the secrecy around it.

Guys, I've been a big advocate of Jeff Wilson and his reporting on here. Overall he does a really fantastic job of reporting.

That said, the one area where I have noticed that he has been wrong a lot is regarding budget issues. He may very well be right in what he said, but I wouldn't necessarily take it to the bank until it actually happens. It could be that the team is, in fact, going to significantly reduce salary - initially - in order to make some other moves. Personally I'd like to see the team get younger, and get away from the type of players who tend to live on the IL. There's some salary dead weight on this roster that can and should be expunged IMO.

The payroll numbers haven't been finalized due to outstanding performance bonus calculations. For example, I believe DeGrom has a significant bonus based upon whether or not he is top 5 in the Cy Young voting.

CBT takes a more holistic approach.

For example, Mahle. He was signed to $22M for 2yrs. $5.5 & $16.5. His CBT hit is $11M/yr even though his payroll hit in '25 is $16.5.

Additionally, there are other considerations that include expanded 40 spots when a player is on the 60IL.

I'm sure the Accts on the team have every nickle accounted for, for me, until those surprises like the Hulu Subscription surprise... you don't know until MLB audits, I'd think.

My now-wife is a CPA. When we dated, she was all wound up reconciling her checkbook. Apparently people did that. I sat there for an hour waiting while he poured through the transactions. "How much are you off?" I asked. "Ten cents." "I'M WAITING FOR YOU TO FIND 10 CENTS?! Let me reach into my pocket." I thought I was going to flip out. But, on it went.

May not be appropriate to post here since we've moved on to our own search, but Bochy not being considered for SF coaching vacancy:

At end of season press conference, Buster Posey said he talked to Bruce Bochy a couple of days ago. He said the door is open to some sort of role with Giants, but he won't be part of manager search.

— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) October 1, 2025

I like the idea of Alonso, but he is now a Boras buy and I'm a hard pass.

He signed a 2yr deal for $54M, prior to '25. $30+$24. Prior to that (in June 2023) he was offered 7yr/$158M ($22.5M avg). It included an Arb year ('24). He got a QO for '25 and declined. That meant teams signing him would give up picks and NYM would get 1. That is a high price to pay for a guy who wants a ton of many.

His '25 $30M squeezed more money and with the $24M '26, he had a backdrop. If he sucked, he'd still get $24. If he could get more, he'd take FA.

He can probably play the game another year or 2. He might go another 2yr deal for $54M structured the same. But, he'll be 31 in December and by his 32 year age, he'll have a deal through his 36 or 37 age.

Once we get a new Manager, I think the sides will have preliminary Arb discussions. Can Shu impact the Arb guys to get more out of guys like Jung, Adolis, and Jung?!

Leody got like $4M for '25.

Serf in '25: ($773K in '25)
Duran (26) - Arb1 this offseason <- Not worried about his #. $1M? Let him go?
Smith (27) - Arb1 <- $2-3M?
1B: Burger (29) - Arb1 <- $3-4M?
3B: Jung (27) - Arb1 <- I'm sure he'll be hunting for $7M+

RF: Adolis (32) - Arb3 ($10.5M in '25) <- He'll want more. $12-13M
_C: Heim (30) - Arb3 ($4.75M in '25) <- He'll want more. $7-9m?

IMO, that puts Jung, Adolis, and Heim in the $30M cost range. Add Burger at say $6M.

Trade Jung and slide Josh into 3B.

I have to think that Adolis and Heim are gone. They are what they are.

If you trade Jung, that means you'll have to keep Duran. He finished the season well but had absolutely no pop in his bat this year.

Jung is a tough decision. He's a + defender, but can't stay healthy and really struggled at the plate this year. Can he be convinced to take a different approach at the plate this offseason?

If I'm GM, I keep Duran for the time being, unless there proves to be legit trade value there. Jung I would unload. Would definitely keep Burger. I know most of you disagree with me on this, but I'd test the waters to find out if any of the really high priced guys have any trade value (Seager, Semien, and even deGrom). You've got two guys who are brittle, one who's skills have diminished, and none of them are spring chickens. Get younger if possible. If no one is willing to part with really good prospects or MLB players, then you obviously keep them. JMO

I think a good GM is always looking to make the team better, even if that means parting with a fan favorite (Seager). Like you said, if the return blows you away you take it. Fans might be upset until they learn the value of the return. That return also has to produce. On the other hand, if you don't get any good offers the no hard feelings. That's all just the business of baseball, and any sport for that matter

There is absolutely no way in hell I would be spending $19-22MM for Garcia and Heim. I would be more willing to pay another team that much to get them to take them away.

Trade those two dudes for whatever you can get or let them walk and use the money for something else. CY said the team will be younger next year, so if we needed another neon sign flashing that Garcia and Heim are gone, that would be one.

Semien is a dawg. You have 2 more at $26, then the 3rd is $20M. He just turned 35.

Seager's OPS+ the past 3 years? 172, 139, 153. 6 more @ $31.5M. He'll be 32 when the season starts.

deGrom has - $38M, $37M, then a mutual option.

IMO, if you trade one... you'd might as well trade all 3. Add Eovaldi.

Now, having said that... if we could trade those 4... even if we eat a little $$$... I'd expect us to be able to get 2 of T5 prospects from each team, for each player.

I think if he played a single position, he'd weather the season better.

I don't disagree that I like him better as a Super Util guy.

Whoa. You straight up ready to blow the whole thing up and start over, huh?

That's not really the point. The point is, if you're blowing it up, you should trade your older players that will command a major return. Evo would definitely fall in that bucket.

Freeman (almost 25) went 97G, .336, 19 HRs, and a .932 OPS in AAA RR

Mostly at 3B, played MIF, as well.

Hard to compare with Jung because of injuries. I don't think Freeman projects as high on the power, but does many of the small things.

Not sure about Defense.

https://newbergreport.substack.com/p/the-day-i-met-cody-freeman

Maybe you take Jung to ST and see if Freeman can outplay him.

Freeman is a solid defender and projects 15-20 HR power. If he can hit for a decent average, that's very easy to be happy with. And looking at his BA this season and using that to project his future performance is not worth the time it takes to do it. Compare these two players' stats:

121 ABs, 3 HR, 15 RBI, 19 Ks, .228 Avg., .258 OBP
vs.
123 ABs, 5 HR, 16 RBI, 30 Ks, .220 Avg., .281 OBP

The first player is Cody Freeman. The 2nd is Mike Trout - those were his numbers the 1st season he was called up. Now I'm clearly not suggesting that Freeman will be another Trout, just pointing out that you can't tell anything from that small of a sample size. Time will tell.

Putting that aside, the Rangers are in a real conundrum in deciding which way to go with this roster. If you keep the core together, a core which has been injury prone and has underperformed for 2 consecutive seasons, you're gambling that they'll somehow turn it around and have a late-career resurgence. History would suggest that, while possible, that is fairly unlikely to happen. On the other hand, if you blow it up (in whole or in part), you run the risk of alienating or downright pissing off the fanbase, because you'll likely not be very competitive for at least a couple of years. If you do a partial roster purge, but somehow don't improve the roster, you're asking older players like deGrom and Seager to stick it out through the rebuild, which I would imagine they wouldn't be overly thrilled with.

It's a tough call no matter which way they decide to go. Guess we'll know in the next few months.

You just compared 19 year old 6'2"/235 Trout and 24 year old 5'8"/180 Freeman.

Joe Prop is going to unleash on you

DallasAg 94 said:

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You just compared 19 year old 6'2"/235 Trout and 24 year old 5'8"/180 Freeman.

Joe Prop is going to unleash on you

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No, I didn't. As a matter of fact, I went out of my way to say this

Quote:

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Now I'm clearly not suggesting that Freeman will be another Trout, just pointing out that you can't tell anything from that small of a sample size.

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My point was, you can't look at Freeman's .228 BA this season and say "oh OK, he's a .220 hitter." We have no way of knowing what he is yet. I suspect he's most likely a super utility guy as opposed to a starter, but we'll see. It's worth noting that at least some of his late blooming can be attributed to the fact that the Rangers were trying him at catcher in the minors '21-'23, and he bounced around a lot of positions. I'm encouraged by the fact that his batting numbers showed improvement the past couple of years, unlike the high king of mediocrity Justin Foscue, who has basically been the same player the past 4 seasons.

I think the Rangers are in desperate need of tenured HoF caliber players.

Keeping Seager, Semien, deGrom, and Eovaldi, help ensure we continue to grow our status beyond a place of passing through.

All but deGrom will be known as Rangers when their careers are done, and even if they are only Hall-of-Very-Very-Good players, it will be nice to count them among the relevant impact players.

OK so you're going to need to walk me through what that means exactly.