ARLINGTON — Chris Young was mere days removed from the Texas Rangers’ first-ever World Series championship when he declared that bullpen reinforcements were “an area of need” at last fall’s general manager’s meetings in Phoenix, Ariz.
Young — then the general manager, now the president of baseball operations — was a tad further removed from trophy-hoisting and parades at the Rangers’ end-of-year debrief on Tuesday in which the Highland Park native outlined his strategies to bring Texas back to the playoffs after a failed repeat bid.
Some things don’t change.
“The bullpen is an area we need to address,” Young said Tuesday.
The difference: Last winter’s task was to build a baseline of competency in a bullpen that converted just 31% of its save opportunities. This winter’s is to maintain and improve a position group that was marketed better in that statistical category during the 2024 season. Right-handed pitchers Kirby Yates (who revived his career and was one of baseball’s best closers) and David Robertson (whose 1.9 WAR ranked sixth among American League relievers, according to FanGraphs) gave Texas the kind of back-end stability that it didn’t have during its World Series championship season.
Yates, 37, will enter free agency this November. Robertson, 39, has a $7 million mutual option written into his contract and can also become a free agent. José Leclerc — the team’s longest-tenured player whose 64 games pitched this season ranked second to only David Robertson — will also become a free agent.
“Losing potentially three significant arms, we’ve got to find a way to backfill that,” Young said. “We’re going to have to get creative in terms of looking at the trade market, the waiver market and developing our own pitchers as well.”
Texas got bang for its buck last offseason when it signed the veteran duo of Yates ($4.5 million) and Robertson ($10 million) to what developed into bargain contracts. They won’t be as cost-effective this time around. Yates and Robertson could command a combined $20 million on the open market this season and the Rangers have holes to fill — namely in the starting rotation — elsewhere too.
The Rangers’ bullpen ranked 26th leaguewide with a 4.41 ERA this season but converted 67% of its save attempts (the seventh-best mark in baseball) thanks in large part to Yates, who was 33-for-34 in save opportunities with a 1.17 ERA, and a refined back-end that could weather storms.
They’ll need something similar — and then some — to return to contention next season. It’s just a matter of whether Yates, Robertson and Leclerc will be a part of that.
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