The Rangers are among the teams with interest in Teruaki Sato, report Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic. The NPB star has also been tied to the Padres, Yankees, Mets, Phillies and Diamondbacks.
Texas would be a long shot given his expected price tag. The Rangers have seemingly been more focused on shedding some of their significant obligations to any of Corey Seager, Jacob deGrom or Nathan Eovaldi. Sato is arguably the top position player in this year’s free agent class. MLBTR predicted a five-year, $80MM deal; other public estimates on his market value have been in the nine-figure range. His signing team would also need to pay a posting fee proportional to the contract value. Players making the move from foreign leagues have a wider range of outcomes, so perhaps the Rangers are monitoring in case Sato’s market collapses similarly to Munetaka Murakami’s a year ago.
There’s obviously no harm for Texas in doing their diligence from a scouting perspective. Sato, who’s entering his age-28 season, is a left-handed hitter with huge power. He hit 39 home runs for the Hashin Tigers this year, one season after connecting on 40. Sato is coming off a .306/.383/.609 slash line across 614 plate appearances.
While evaluators don’t have any doubt that Sato’s raw power would translate, there are bigger questions about his pure hitting ability. He struck out at a 26.7% rate in a league where the average pitcher quality is below that of Major League Baseball. Hitters coming over from NPB typically strike out more often at the MLB level. There’s a decent chance Sato will punch out 30% of the time, though that’s a tradeoff teams will make if he’s hitting 30+ homers. Sato’s whiff rates aren’t quite at the same level as Murakami’s were during his time in NPB, but he’s a more aggressive hitter who isn’t likely to walk as often as Murakami did in his first big league season.
Sato has played mostly third base in Japan. Many scouts feel he projects more as a corner outfielder in MLB. Texas is set up nicely at the hot corner with Josh Jung, but they have an opening at designated hitter with Joc Pederson testing free agency. They could also add a left fielder and commit to Wyatt Langford as an everyday center fielder. Evan Carter isn’t expected to be ready for Opening Day after undergoing hip surgery last month. He’s coming off a tough year offensively that could lead the Rangers to question whether he’s still a core piece.
As shown on MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker, the Rangers ended the 2026 season with an estimated $192.8MM cash payroll and $218.7MM luxury tax number. They’re respectively projected around $175MM and $194MM for next year. President of baseball operations Chris Young has suggested payroll is likely to be similar to this year’s level.
Texas could create some short-term spending room by trading MacKenzie Gore (projected for an $8.7MM arbitration salary) and dealing or non-tendering Jake Burger ($6.9MM projection) and Logan O’Hoppe ($3.1MM projection). Those would exacerbate questions about their first base, rotation, and backup catcher positions. They’ll also need to add veteran help to a rookie-laden bullpen. There may be too many other needs for the Rangers to make a genuine run at Sato, especially with a ticking clock. His 45-day posting window will continue running during the lockout, meaning he’ll need to sign by December 1.
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