The former is probably going to require $40 million or more for two or three years and has a sketchy injury history the last three years; the latter will be somewhere in the mid-30s for more like five years. The cost is even higher considering they both received qualifying offers, meaning the Rangers would have to surrender a draft pick to sign one.
You might even say Kershaw’s decision suggests they MUST go all in. It’s perfectly reasonable to assume Kershaw and his family decided they have made it work in LA for nearly 20 years now while maintaining their offseason home in Dallas and that they could do it for at least one more. It’s also perfectly reasonable to suggest the Rangers didn’t really make it a difficult decision for him. They lost 94 games in 2022. They didn’t present themselves as a tempting option.
Lest anybody forget the point — toppling Houston — noted voice of reason Scott Boras underscored it during his pun-filled free agency press conference at the GM meetings.