Unfortunately for the Texas Rangers, their two-year ace Nathan Eovaldi saw his price tag increase.

Early on Monday morning, it was reported that starting pitcher Yuesi Kikuchi agreed to a 3-year $63 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels.

Kikuchi’s contract will average $21 million per season as the Angels offseason shopping spree continues.

For the Rangers, we still don’t know exactly what the budget will be this offseason but we do know ownership would like to be below the luxury tax.

With the construction of the current roster and payroll that could leave the Rangers with about $20-30 million to work with in free agency.

After a strong two years with the Rangers, Nathan Eovaldi could demand much or all of that salary for the 2025 season.

Texas not only would like to add one or two starters but also needs to nearly completely rebuild the bullpen as well as adding a backup catcher and another bat if the budget can afford it.

Now that Kikuchi who is the first mid-tier starter is off the board, the market for Eovaldi becomes much more predictable.

Eovaldi likely gets more than Kikuchi considering the fact that he had a better overall season and has had a better track record.

Age certainly isn’t really a factor since Eovaldi is 34 and Kikuchi is 34. However, Eovaldi’s postseason success certainly makes him attractive to contenders.

Ultimately, after Kikuchi’s contract, it’s reasonable that Eovaldi could get somewhere between $23-$26 million per season if not even more.

If the Rangers want to afford that, they would have to do some serious financial gymnastics to cut salary.

With MLB’s non-tender deadline coming and going, that gymnastics just went up in terms of the degree of difficulty.

One way that Texas could attempt to shave some salary is if they traded Jon Gray and convinced a team to take on the $14 million in the final year of his contract.

No matter what they choose to do, bringing back Nathan Eovaldi will be a tough task but we know it is a top priority for Chris Young and the Rangers front office.