One baseball insider believes he knows what is holding up free-agency spending for the Texas Rangers and it’s not necessarily uncertainty over their regional television deal for 2024.
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, during an appearance on Foul Territory, reported that Rangers ownership is actually more concerned about what happens beyond 2024, saying that he believes the Rangers are going to be “OK” next season financially.
“The question that ownership has, and I would dispute that this is a real problem, but this is the way ownership views things sometimes,” Rosenthal said. “They’re worried about 2025 and beyond. So they’re worried about what things are going to look like in the future.”
The Rangers don’t have clarity on their regional television situation for 2024 as their rightsholder, Diamond Sports Group, is in bankruptcy. DSG is attempting to get out of paying the Rangers part or all of what they’re owed, a reported $111 million, as part of emerging from Chapter 11. DSG is attempting the same thing with the $50 million it owes the Cleveland Guardians.
Rosenthal believes the Rangers will be fine for 2024, in part, because of the revenue the team will generate off of their 2023 World Series title.
“They’ve made a ton of money with the World Series championship and they’re going to make more because the first year after a World Series title is always a big year for revenue,” Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal couldn’t project what would happen to the Rangers beyond 2024, but he hypothesized that a superstar-laden team like the Rangers could do well in a direct-to-consumer, or streaming, type of environment.
The Rangers have not given any indication of what they will do with their regional television rights once they have severed ties with DSG. That will come no later than after next season as DSG will surrender all of its regional TV deals in a previously negotiated deal in bankruptcy court.
But Rosenthal’s advice to the Rangers during his appearance was to sign pitcher Jordan Montgomery now. His reasoning? Even if the regional TV deal is still in limbo, there is enough money coming off the books after 2024 to accommodate his contract.
“(Andrew) Heaney and (Max) Scherzer and one other (Nathan Eovaldi) come off the payroll after this year … so they should have the flexibility to do this in theory,” Rosenthal said.
Eovaldi is in the second year of a two-year contract that comes with a vesting option for 2025 based on innings pitched in the first two years of the deal.
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