As Rangers rebuild bullpen of misfits, don’t forget Texas’ track record on that front

Coming to you next summer at Globe Life Field: Guns ‘n Roses. That’s already been announced. Next up might just be the All-American Rejects.

Not the band, the bullpen.

A year after the Rangers cobbled together a bullpen of castoffs and undervalued arms on the cheap and watched them overachieve, the club is doing everything it can to create a reunion tour. And if not the original band, the Rangers are doing what they can to get replicas.

They lost a locally-sourced lefty and replaced him with another, the bushy-mustachioed Tyler Alexander of Southlake Carroll, TCU and currently Aledo taking the place of Fort Worth’s Hoby Milner.

Rangers

On Tuesday, they agreed to a deal (pending a physical) with Arlington’s Chris Martin on a one-year contract, worth slightly less than the $5.5 million he earned in 2025. Martin will get $4 million in guaranteed money, but only $2 million next year due to a funky deferred signing bonus, a person with knowledge of the contract told The Dallas Morning News.

That might make it more realistic to bring back Shawn Armstrong, the glue to the 2025 bullpen, who did it all last year for $1.125 million. Armstrong stands to receive the biggest bump among the relievers, but every move the Rangers have made in the bullpen thus far has been for minimal investments. It is the proverbial keeping the powder dry. The club is also focused on adding a depth starter and a right-handed bat, President of Baseball Operations Chris Young said this week.

The Milner role, now filled by Alexander, is a critical one. Milner was death on lefties last year, holding them to a .526 OPS. His Weighted On-Base Average by lefty opponents (.224) ranked ninth of 68 lefties who faced at least 100 batters; Alexander, in a season split with Milwaukee and the Chicago White, ranked 51st in wOBA. It’s going to require a jump.

For whatever it’s worth, the Rangers have proved adept at identifying those guys capable of doing that. Milner made a big jump in 2025, as did Armstrong and Jacob Webb. In Alexander, 31, the Rangers see an extreme strike thrower, whose percentage of pitches in the zone (46.1%) ranked just ahead of Nathan Eovaldi. If you are mentioned in the same sentence with Eovaldi, that’s always a good sign.

Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Tyler Alexander (70) throws against the Philadelphia...

Globe Life Field has proven to be pitcher-friendly. Especially so for fly-ball pitchers, like Alexander. So, the Rangers believe the conditions are there for a jump. Factor this in, too: They are good at the art of pitch design/shape and that’s where Alexander noticed a big difference last year, particularly in relation to his sweeper.

“There were things I worked on a little bit towards the end of the year with the White Sox,” Alexander said from his home Wednesday. “Sometimes a certain pitch shape will work one year for me and then the next, maybe the hitters adjust, or maybe it’s just not quite the same. I throw a very high vertical [movement] sweeper. At the end of the year, we were working on making it a little bit more on the zero line.

“I was getting too many takes on the sweeper running away from [lefties]. I wanted something to get below the barrel instead of risk getting underneath it and leaving the universe. So that’s one thing.”

Is it the answer? Maybe. Maybe not. Bullpens are fickle. And lefty relievers even more so. But as the Rangers try to bring back the best of the All-American Rejects, the return of Martin and the addition of Alexander give them possibilities.

Twitter/X: @Evan_P_Grant

Podcast: Cowboys’ and Rangers’ needs, CFP preview and is Matt Eberflus out?