Five Rangers are officially free agents

With the World Series having ended yesterday, there are five Texas Rangers players who are now officially free agents (and thus, technically, no longer free agents).

The most notable of those five is pitcher Martin Perez. Perez and the Rangers have engaged in contract negotiations, with both team and player having interest in Perez returning for 2023, but no deal has been struck yet. If the Rangers and Perez don’t have a deal done by Thursday, November 10, the Rangers will likely tender Perez a qualifying offer — that date is the deadline for extending a QO. At $19.6 million for one year, Perez would seem more likely than not to accept, though negotiations could still continue on a multi-year deal. The deadline for a player to accept the QO is November 20.

Also hitting the free agent market are Kohei Arihara, Matt Moore, Charlie Culberson and Kevin Plawecki.

The Rangers will have to make a move to clear at least one spot on the 40 man roster by Thursday, when players have to be removed from the 60 day injured list — the Rangers would have 41 players once everyone from the 60 day i.l. is restored. The Rangers also have until Thursday to make decisions on their 2023 contract options for Jose Leclerc ($6.25M with a $500K buyout) and Kole Calhoun ($5.5M with no buyout). Calhoun is almost certainly going to have his option declined, which, even in the absence of any other move, would get the Rangers’ 40 man roster down to 40.

November 15 is the deadline for teams to add players to the 40 man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 draft. There will be several Rangers prospects added, so between now and then we’ll be seeing a number of players land on the waiver wire as the Rangers clear 40 man roster spots that will be needed to add those players.

November 18 is the deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players. Dennis Santana would seem to be the player most likely to be non-tendered, among the team’s arb-eligible guys, though Mitch Garver and Brett Martin would also be possibilities. It appears that Kolby Allard may be a Super Two, in which case he would also be a likely non-tender.