The Texas Rangers just missed out on making the playoffs this season, but there could be one player who changes everything.

Fresh off winning the NPB Triple Crown with the Hanshin Tigers, Teruaki Sato is heading to the MLB.

Sato, 27, is a ferocious left-handed hitter who is going to command a major salary when he becomes available, roughly around the time the World Series comes to an end.

This is a guy who hit 39 home runs in 2026, had 106 RBIs, and sported a stellar .306 batting average.

To say the Rangers need that sort of bat in this lineup is an understatement, though the sweepstakes for Sato are going to be incredibly competitive, and that may even be an understatement.

Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller compiled a list of the top five teams where Sato could land, and he also included five teams as honorable mentions. 

The Rangers didn't quite crack the top five, but when looking at the competition, it's not hard to understand why.

Regardless, this is a Rangers team that desperately needs to make a major splash going into the 2027 season, and bringing in Sato would get the job done.

Miller said "it's kind of now or never for Texas," though he believes this would be a tough contract to work out financially.

When looking at the Rangers' past three seasons, Miller touched on how the offense has been a major detriment to this team, and they should be in win-now mode with Nathan Eovaldi and MacKenzie Gore becoming free agents sooner rather than later.

MLB Trade Rumors' Steve Adams wrote, "There aren't many viable nine-figure deal candidates on the market this winter, but Sato seems to have that kind of earning upside."

The exact numbers of Sato's contract are going to be extremely interesting not just because of the posting fee, but also with a potential lockout looming.

Some teams will likely go all-out in these next few weeks, but others are going to take a wait-and-see approach, which could greatly benefit them, or be the complete opposite.

Either way, fellow Bleacher Report writer Joel Rueter gave a six-year, $120 million projection for Sato. That would likely put the Rangers out of the running, but if no one bites, they could easily join the party and try to sign Sato to a steal, similar to what the Chicago White Sox did with Munetaka Murakami.