Sources: Rangers address needs with 3 signings

The Texas Rangers agreed to deals with three free agents Friday, filling their void at catcher with Danny Jansen and adding left-hander Tyler Alexander and right-handed reliever Alexis Diaz on one-year contracts, sources told ESPN.

After non-tendering Jonah Heim, the Rangers had spent the winter searching to fill the starting catcher role. In giving Jansen a two-year, $14.5 million contract, Texas bet that his right-handed power bat will provide pop to a lineup that also has added Brandon Nimmo in a trade this offseason.

Texas' other priority, rebuilding pitching depth a year after posting the best team ERA in baseball at 3.49, starts with the versatile Alexander and Díaz, who prior to 2025 had saved 75 games over three seasons.

With new manager Skip Schumaker taking over, the Rangers are exploring all options to improve in 2026 after finishing .500 this year. The Rangers added aggressively at the trade deadline but failed to make the playoffs for a second consecutive year after winning the World Series in 2023, and to get Nimmo, they dealt Marcus Semien, whom they had previously signed to a seven-year deal. They also have received interest in the World Series MVP that year, shortstop Corey Seager, though no trade is close to materializing.

That championship-winning year, Heim was an All-Star. He is now replaced by the 30-year-old Jansen, a veteran who has played for four teams in the past two years and is regarded as a stabilizing figure with solid on-base skills and occasional pop in his bat.

Jansen finished strong down the stretch with Milwaukee after arriving there in a trade from Tampa Bay, hitting .254/.346/.433 and pulling his season line up to .215/.321/.399 with 14 home runs. He is a career .220/.311/.415 hitter with the majority of his eight-year career spent with the Toronto Blue Jays, who drafted him in the 16th round out of a Wisconsin high school.

Alexander is a skillful lefty as comfortable starting a game as he is finishing it. He pitched for the Brewers and Chicago White Sox last year, throwing in 52 games -- five as a starter, 12 at the end -- with a 4.98 ERA over 97⅔ innings. When healthy, Alexander regularly throws around 100 innings, an advantage for any pitching staff that might need a spot starter or an innings eater to follow a bad start.

Diaz offers the most upside, a closer as recently as 2024, but is coming off the worst season of the three. His average fastball in 2025 dropped more than two ticks from its peak down to 93.5 mph, and his slider, long a weapon, got hit more than it ever has. Though his career ERA is 3.38 over 205 innings, Diaz had an 8.15 ERA in 18 games on the Reds, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves.

Texas did among the best jobs in baseball last season piecing together a bullpen without spending a huge amount on salaries, and Alexander and Diaz are the first new pitchers for the 2026 version. The Rangers return front-line starters Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi but lost Merrill Kelly, Tyler Mahle and Patrick Corbin to free agency and will turn to Jack Leiter along with Kumar Rocker, Jacob Latz and a returning Cody Bradford, who underwent elbow surgery in July, to fill rotation spots.