As Jamey Newberg mentioned in his newsletter the other day, the Rangers are going to have to make some decisions on what minor leaguers to add to the 40 man roster this offseason.
I'm going to offer my thoughts on the guys who should and shouldn't be added at some point after the minor league season is over, but in the meantime, I thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at what the 40 man roster looks like right now, at least according to the official Texas Rangers website:
Carlos Almanzar
James Baldwin
Joaquin Benoit
Doug Brocail
Ryan Bukvich
Francisco Cordero
R.A. Dickey
Juan Dominguez
Frank Francisco
Kevin Gryboski
Steve Karsay
Kameron Loe
Erasmo Ramirez
Nick Regilio
Ricardo Rodriguez
Kenny Rogers
Josh Rupe
Brian Shouse
Michael Tejera
John Wasdin
C.J. Wilson
Chris Young
Sandy Alomar
Rod Barajas
Gerald Laird
Hank Blalock
Mark DeRosa
Adrian Gonzalez
Marshall McDougall
Alfonso Soriano
Mark Teixeira
Mike Young
Jason Botts
David Dellucci
Richard Hidalgo
Gary Matthews, Jr.
Laynce Nix
Kevin Mench
Greg Colbrunn
Phil Nevin
That's 42 players (and they are over 40 because I'm counting guys on the 60 day d.l.).
From this list, there are several guys you can immediately say are off the roster this offseason with a great deal of certainty: Baldwin, Karsay, Tejera, Wasdin, Alomar, Hidalgo, Colbrunn.
That, though, only gets you to 35. However, there are other players who seem like likely candidates to be removed, but aren't locks: Almanzar, Brocail, Bukvich, DeRosa. If all those players are removed -- and they probably should be -- that gets the 40 man roster down to 31.
Then, you've got your borderline cases, your pseudo-prospects and fringe guys who might have some value, but who you could maybe slip through waivers because of limited upside, options problems, or injuries. That would include Dickey, Ramirez, Regilio, and McDougall.
You've also got guys like Gryboski and Matthews, who could be non-tendered rather than fooling with arbitration with them. Barajas also falls in this category, but because the Rangers are going to have to have a backup catcher, and since I already struck Alomar from the list, non-tendering Barajas would open a 40 man spot that would just have to be filled with another catcher. Similarly, Rogers is a free agent, but I still think he's more likely than not to return, and even if he doesn't, that just means another pitcher that has to be added.
So you are looking at the 40 man roster probably sitting around 29-30 going into the offseason. The Rangers are probably going to want to pick up a starting outfielder, a couple of starting pitchers, and a reliever or two, possibly more.
So that means that the Rangers are likely looking at being able to add 4-5 minor leaguers, before they have to start making tough decisions like, "Would we rather protect Drew Meyer in the Rule 5 draft or expose Nick Regilio to waivers?"