Rangers release Blaine Crim, dropping 40-man roster to 39

What happened

Per the MLB transactions page, as Yahoo Sports reported, the Texas Rangers have released first baseman Blaine Crim, bringing their 40-man roster down to 39 players. The move closes a chapter that began in Texas, took a detour through Colorado, and ended with a second designation for assignment — this one in mid-May 2026 — before the Rangers completed the paperwork.

Why it matters

Crim's arc is a tidy illustration of how the margins of a major-league roster work: a player added to the 40-man for a specific operational purpose, used briefly, optioned back down, claimed off waivers by another club, given a second look, and ultimately let go. None of that is unusual. What makes it worth tracing is how cleanly each step followed the last.

Texas reportedly added Crim to the 40-man in early 2025 so he could be called up when Jake Burger was sent to AAA Round Rock for a reset. That is the 40-man's core function — a player must be on it to be eligible for a major-league call-up — and Crim filled the slot as designed. His time in the majors that spring was brief: 11 at-bats, no hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch producing a .000/.154/.000 slash line, before he was optioned back to Round Rock.

Texas designated Crim for assignment at the 2025 trade deadline. Under general league mechanics, a player designated for assignment must be traded, released, or placed on waivers within seven days, and outright waivers run 48 hours. The Colorado Rockies claimed him, which is where the story picked up some texture.

The numbers

Crim's stint with Colorado late in 2025 was the most productive stretch of his big-league résumé. In 61 plate appearances with the Rockies, he posted a .241/.295/.556 slash line — genuine contact and power production at the major-league level. It was enough to keep him in the organization heading into 2026, when Colorado sent him to AAA to start the year before designating him for assignment in mid-May.

His Texas line — .000/.154/.000 across 11 at-bats — reflects a sample too small to carry much weight in either direction. The walk and the hit-by-pitch at least suggest some plate discipline survived the hitless stretch. The Colorado numbers are the more meaningful data point, and they are the ones that will follow him to whatever comes next.

Yahoo Sports also notes that Crim was Texas's 19th-round pick in 2019 — a draft position that carries its own kind of narrative weight. Players selected that deep who reach the major leagues at all have already beaten considerable odds. Crim appeared in the majors with two different organizations. The transactions page renders that in a single line; the fuller version is a multi-year professional career that got him to the show twice.

Where the club stands

### Is this move operationally significant for Texas right now?

Not in an immediate sense. Releasing a player already in AAA and already off the active roster does not change what Texas puts on the field tonight. What it does is free one of the 40-man spots occupied since early 2025 — a small piece of roster housekeeping that gives the front office one additional slot to work with.

Per Yahoo Sports and the MLB transactions page, the Rangers sit at 80-82 (.494), second in the AL West and 1 game back in the division. They are eliminated from both the division race and the Wild Card race, carrying a Wild Card rank of 4 and sitting 4.0 games relative to the cut line. The team enters Wednesday's action on a one-game losing streak.

The upcoming schedule takes Texas to Miami on Wednesday, June 24, where Jacob deGrom is the probable starter against Eury Pérez at loanDepot park. From there, the club heads to Toronto for consecutive games Thursday and Friday at Rogers Centre — MacKenzie Gore against Kevin Gausman on Thursday, Nathan Eovaldi against Patrick Corbin on Friday.

That schedule, and that record, frames the Crim release for what it is: a quiet administrative note during a season that has already resolved its postseason questions. The 40-man spot may matter more in the offseason, when Rule 5 draft eligibility decisions require clubs to protect or expose players on the roster. A team at 39 has room to add without subtracting.

What we don't know yet

Yahoo Sports reported the move per the MLB transactions page — a transaction record, not a club announcement with accompanying commentary. Texas has not publicly explained the timing or whether any specific roster addition prompted it.

Crim's next destination is also unresolved. A released player is free to sign with any organization, typically on a minor-league deal that would not affect any club's 40-man count. Whether he draws interest — and from whom — is not reported.

What to watch

The freed 40-man spot is the most actionable item here. With Texas eliminated from postseason contention and a roster at 39, the front office has flexibility to add a player — whether from the minors, via a trade, or through a waiver claim — without needing to make a corresponding subtraction. Whether that space gets used before the end of the season, or held for offseason maneuvering ahead of the Rule 5 draft, is the question worth tracking.

On the field, the deGrom start Wednesday is the more immediate storyline for Rangers fans. The roster note is filed; the baseball continues.