ARLINGTON -- The MLB offseason is officially underway.
According to sources, the mutual options for three Rangers -- designated hitter Joc Pederson, catcher Kyle Higashioka and reliever Jakob Junis -- were not exercised on Friday. ESPN was first on the Pederson news, while the Dallas Morning News was first on the other two. The club has not officially announced the option decisions.
All three players are now free agents.
Mutual options are rarely, if ever, exercised by both sides.
The most significant of the three, Pederson signed a two-year, $37 million deal with the Rangers entering the 2025 season. He had a brutal beginning to his Texas tenure, hitting .181/.285/.328 in ‘25 with nine home runs and a franchise-record 0-for-41 slump in April. He bounced back to become one of the Rangers’ most important hitters in ‘26, slashing .235/.329/487 with 26 home runs before missing the final weeks of the season with a left hand fracture.
With the club looking to become more athletic, Pederson’s path back to the Rangers seemed slim as a 35-year-old designated hitter. With him out of the picture, manager Skip Schumaker could opt to rotate players in the DH spot to get them off their feet, like Corey Seager, Brandon Nimmo and Josh Jung, two of whom have dealt with injuries over the last few years.
Higashioka signed a two-year, $12.5 million contract entering 2024 as well, but played just 58 games this season due to a flexor strain that landed him on the injured list in July. The Rangers retained catchers Danny Jansen and Logan O’Hoppe, though the latter did not catch any games at the big league level after coming to Texas along with Chase Silseth from the Angels at the Trade Deadline. Catching depth remains a need this offseason.
Junis was a key piece of the Rangers’ bullpen in the first half, when he posted a 2.80 ERA in 35 1/3 innings as a setup man before the break. He struggled down the stretch -- 5.21 ERA in 19 innings after the All-Star Game -- after a pair of injured list stints due to a left hip impingement and a left abductor strain.
These three decisions free up approximately $30 million on the Rangers’ payroll for 2027.