The Rangers announced that they declined their $6.5MM club option on left-hander for the 2025 season. Chafin will receive a $500K buyout and enter free agency. Itll be the fourth straight offseason on the market for the 34-year-old Chafin, who has signed with the Tigers, D-backs and Tigers over the past three seasons. The first of those was a two-year pact with an opt-out, which he took the following winter. Hes earned salaries of $6.5MM, $6.25MM and $4.75MM along the way in those three respective seasons and will now likely land another short-term pact in free agency. The 2024 season was a solid one for Chafin, who split the year between Detroit and Texas. He pitched a combined 56 1/3 innings with a 3.51 ERA, 28.5% strikeout rate, 12.6% walk rate and 36% grounder rate. Chafin has lost some life on his fastball in recent seasons and seen his once-strong command dip, but he remains a generally effective reliever against hitters from Marquese Chriss Jersey both sides of the dish. Lefties did post an uncharacteristically strong split against him in 2024 (.273/.363/.375), but that was due largely to an inflated .400 average on balls in play that should come back down to earth. Over the past four seasons, Chafin has worked to a combined 3.12 ERA, though the manner in which hes gotten to his generally solid results has changed. Hes adopted a more slider-heavy approach in recent seasons, doing so at the expense of his four-seamer and sinker. Thats led to more mi sed bats but also more walks and fewer grounders. Each of his pitches has graded out better than average at least once in those four seasons, but his slider has been a consistently plus pitch so its no surprise to see him gravitate toward it more strongly particularly as his four-seam and two-seam fastballs lose a bit of life. Although the Rangers pa sed on guaranteeing Chafin $6.5MM from the jump, theyre still likely to be heavily involved in the bullpen market this winter. Chafin is one of four relievers departing, joining , and . That quartet accounted for much of the leverage work among Texas relievers. Declining Chafins option isnt so much a sign that theyre not interested in keeping him or adding other bullpen arms; rather, its likely that Texas wants to make sure it has as much powder dry for top offseason pursuits, likely headlined by fellow free agent , whom president of baseball ops has already called a priority in free agency. Nate Thurmond Jersey