The Texas Rangers announced yesterday that they had signed free agent reliever Chris Martin to a one year deal, though there were no reports last evening about the amount of the deal. Robert Murray this morning, however, is reporting that it is a $5.5 million deal.
This is a surprisingly low amount for Martin, who just finished up a two year, $17.5 million deal with the Boston Red Sox, and who pitched quite well for them. Multiple reports have indicated that Martin took less money to play for the Rangers, his hometown team, in what he has said he expects to be his final season as a player. Martin also had a stint on the injured list last year due to anxiety, and one would think that playing in a city where he has family support might help in that regard.
Martin at $5.5 million would put the Rangers’ projected 2025 Opening Day payroll at roughly $213.7 million, per Cots Contracts, and would leave the Rangers roughly $7 million under the Competitive Balance Tax threshold. After exceeding the CBT threshold and being a tax paying team the past two seasons, the Rangers have been widely reported to be trying to stay under that threshold this year, which would allow them to re-set the percentage that they pay in any future years (though that may just be 2026, since the current CBA expires at the end of the 2026 season).
The Rangers have done the bulk of their offseason free agent spending on two players — Nathan Eovaldi and Joc Pederson — who are combining to count $43.5 million towards the CBT threshold, though they also moved Nathaniel Lowe and his expected circa $10 million arbitration salary in a separate deal. Eovaldi and Pederson both got deals that exceeded what they were expected to get this offseason, but Eovaldi was someone Chris Young had said all along was a priority, and it appears that Pederson was at the top of their wish list, as well.
We knew going into the offseason that the bullpen was going undergo a major overhaul, with five veteran relievers hitting the free agent market and Josh Sborz expected to miss the first couple of months of the season. The Rangers have chosen to seek savings there, and have spent less than $10 million combined on veteran free agent relievers Martin, Hoby Milner, Jacob Webb and Shawn Armstrong. Robert Garcia, the lefty reliever acquired from the Washington Nationals in the Lowe trade, is not yet arbitration eligible and will be making close to league minimum, as will new first baseman Jake Burger, acquired via trade with the Miami Marlins.
The Rangers would seem to potentially be in the market for a closer, as there is no one currently in-house who would seem likely to fill that role. Kirby Yates is still out there, and I am sure the Rangers would be interested in a reunion with him. Yates — or another veteran closer — would likely command a salary that would push the Rangers up above the CBT threshold, however. In that case, one would think that Texas would look to move Jon Gray, whose salary — $13 million in 2025, though $14 million for luxury tax purposes — is high enough to create flexibility under the CBT threshold, but low enough that one would think it could be moved with no, or minimal, subsidy.
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