AL West Check-In: Texas Rangers add catcher in free agency
Dec 3, 2024, 10:24 AM
The Padres' Kyle Higashioka doubles against the Dodgers in Game 1 of the 2024 NLDS. (Harry How/Getty Images)
(Harry How/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Free agent catcher Kyle Higashioka and the Texas Rangers agreed Monday night on a $13.5 million, two-year contract that includes a mutual option for the 2027 season.
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Higashioka set career highs with 17 homers and 45 RBIs while playing 84 games this year in his only season with the San Diego Padres, who acquired him last December from the Yankees in the blockbuster trade that sent Juan Soto to New York.
Higashioka gets $5.75 million in 2025 and $6.75 million in 2026. The mutual option in 2027 is for $7 million, with a $1 million buyout.
The 34-year-old catcher spent his first seven big league seasons with New York, hitting .210 with 40 homers and 121 RBIs in 314 games. Higashioka was drafted by the Yankees in 2008 and spent his first 16 professional seasons in their organization, making his major league debut in 2017.
A year after the Rangers won their first World Series championship, Texas went 78-84 in 2024 to finish in third place in the AL West behind the Houston Astros, who won the division at 88-73, and the second-place Seattle Mariners (85-77).
Higashioka joins a Rangers team that has switch-hitting catcher Jonah Heim, an All-Star and Gold Glove winner during the club’s World Series championship season in 2023.
Heim played 131 games in each of the past two seasons. After hitting .258 with 18 homers and 95 RBIs for Texas in 2023, he slipped to .220 with 13 homers and 59 RBIs this year with the Rangers.
Carson Kelly, the catcher Texas acquired from Detroit in a July trade, became a free agent after the season.
