ARLINGTON -- The day teams could contact outside free agents this offseason, Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young reached out to Kyle Higashioka.

It was an area of need, obviously, with the Rangers needing another catcher to share time with Jonah Heim. But Higashioka was the main target of the free-agent catchers on the market. That came to fruition on Monday night, when Texas signed the 34-year-old to a two-year deal with a mutual option for 2027.

¡°We spent a lot of time talking about him before the offseason opened up and we reached out to him right away,¡± said general manager Ross Fenstermaker. ¡°We knew catching was a position where we wanted to complement Jonah and get somebody in there that we thought could elevate the group that we created. We thought Kyle was a good fit for that. I think one of the biggest things that stands out with him is he's a winner.

¡°The consistent theme was that this guy will elevate the pitching staff, will elevate the culture. He's a winner. We're really looking forward to adding people like that to the mix that also play positions of need for us.¡±

For Higashioka, he was attracted to the Rangers because of the elevated roster just a year removed from the World Series and the front office¡¯s commitment to winning.

He¡¯s even more excited about being able to work with a pitching staff that includes ace Jacob deGrom -- ¡°one of the best pitchers this game has ever seen¡± -- and pitching prospects Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker -- ¡°super exciting prospects.¡±

¡°They want to play baseball the right way,¡± Higashioka said. ¡°They want to do the fundamentals. They want to just make sure that we're out there playing good baseball. They really sold me on the fact that I can have a chance to handle the pitching staff and to be an asset to this team. ¡­ I just want to play for a team that's going to be competitive.¡±

Higashioka is coming off his best full offensive season, hitting a career-high 17 homers with a .739 OPS. His only higher OPS (.771) came during the COVID-shortened 2020 season.

Even so, his value comes more in his defense and handling of a pitching staff, something a former big league catcher like Bruce Bochy values above all else. Higashioka ranked as high as the 90th percentile in catcher framing runs in 2023, something that Rangers catchers working with catching coach Bobby Wilson have traditionally excelled at.

Higashioka could improve on blocking and managing the run game, so this is the perfect time to work with one of the best catching coaches in the game.

¡°I think we¡¯ve got a lot of great coaches,¡± Fenstermaker said. ¡°Bobby is tremendous at what he does. This might be a unique situation that Kyle is quite polished in a lot of defensive areas. Maybe there's some opportunity in the blocking space, but for the most part, he does a lot of things really well back there. I think that we're going to be able to dig in deeper, and maybe you'll refine some of the edges. For the most part, we think we're getting a really advanced defensive catcher at the position.¡±

Ironically, Wilson and Higashioka were in Spring Training together with the Yankees in 2013. Many former Rangers catchers have credited Wilson with their defensive improvements over the years, including Gold Glove Award winners Heim and Jose Trevino, who won one after being traded to the Yankees in ¡®22.

¡°One thing I took from Spring Training with him was he had an extreme attention to detail, especially on his defense,¡± Higashioka said. ¡°I think that's a common theme amongst catchers who really can impact the game behind the plate, is that attention to detail. I'm really looking forward to working with him more.¡±