With Opening Day drawing ever nearer, fanbases are filled with anticipation and excitement for the upcoming season.
While some teams’ expectations are merely topping the lowest winning percentage in the history of MLB, other teams will have expectations of World Series success. Chief among those is the Texas Rangers, who won the World Series in 2023, and after an underwhelming season in 2024, they are ready to bounce back with a vengeance this upcoming season.
What happened in 2024?
Third place in the American League West with a 78-84 record.
Coming in as the reigning World Series champions, they brought back most of the key contributors as well as a full season of the sensational rookie of the year candidates Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford.
There was no reason to think Rangers fans had anything to worry about, and an opening night extra-innings win against the Chicago Cubs did nothing to quell the hopes.
As the season bore out, though, the Rangers never got more than five games over .500, and after travelling to Philadelphia for a road trip with a 24-24 record, they proceeded to get swept, putting them below .500 for the first time in Bruce Bochy’s tenure as manager and never again having a winning record.
Injuries certainly played a factor in this, with Josh Jung and Evan Carter being limited to 46 and 45 games, respectively. Considering these were two young players expected to take big strides this year and earmarked for potential All-Star campaigns, losing these two was a massive loss.
The elephant in the room as far as injuries go is, of course, Jacob deGrom, who, after Tommy John surgery in 2023, missed 504 days. He looked his usual Cy Young calibre self when returning to the mound for 10 innings late in the season, but without being consistently healthy, this is irrelevant.
Entering the season as perhaps the best offensive team in baseball, it was a massive surprise to find the Rangers as a bottom-third offensive team. While injuries played a part in this, player regression was an even bigger factor. Marcus Semien had his worst season by bWAR since 2016, Adolis Garcia had his worst ever season by bWAR (in which he’s played more than 21 games), and Jonah Heim, after his seemingly breakout season, struggled mightily.
On the bright side, Corey Seager was his usual brilliant self, hitting 30 home runs and finishing the season with a 5.0 bWAR. Seager missed the last month with a sports hernia, but the fact that he was consistently fit for most of the season gives the organisation reason to hope he can continue at this level of availability moving forward.
Wyatt Langford, the resounding AL Rookie of the Year favourite entering the season, was as good as could be expected for a rookie despite not winning the award. He was expected to be an offensive difference-maker almost immediately, but the facet of his game which took many off guard was his defence.
Consistently playing spectacular defence in left field and even playing good defence in centre field, Langford ranked joint fifth for defensive runs saved above average amongst all outfielders with 14. With the young man expected to continue to improve offensively as he adjusts to big-league pitching and fills out his body more, the hope is he won’t lose any of this defensive ability.
The most pleasant surprise for the Rangers last season, however, had to be the breakthrough of Josh Smith; while seemingly a solid option for the team in previous seasons, nobody could have foreseen his rise. Filling in mainly at third base for Josh Jung, he also started 41 games at shortstop and provided above-replacement-level defence at both positions. With a .258 batting average and 62 RBI, Smith definitely showed that his bat has value, and he looks like he could be a super-utility option for the club coming into the new season.
Big Offseason News
Jake Burger trade – Taking advantage of a firesale from the Miami Marlins, the Rangers lengthened their lineup to an almost comical extreme with the acquisition of Burger. Given that Nathaniel Lowe was traded to the Washington Nationals, Burger figures to play most of his games at first base with the occasional game at designated hitter.
The trade to get Burger involved giving up two low-level shortstop prospects and a young pitcher. For a team in the position the Rangers find themselves in, this is a no-brainer, particularly given Burger is under team control for an additional four years.
Joc Pederson signing – Signing a two-year $37 million dollar contract with the Rangers in the offseason, it seems likely that Pederson will play most of his games at the designated hitter spot. Coming off the back of an impressive season where he hit for a .275 AVG – which is also his career high – he added to that by hitting 23 home runs and 64 RBI.
He absolutely crushed right-handed pitching and was used in an ideal platoon with Randal Grichuk, who is the opposite. Pedersen’s splits were extreme last year, though, with 22 of his 23 home runs coming against right-handed pitchers. As shown by the Arizona Diamondbacks last season, though, this doesn’t need to hinder Joc as long as he’s utilised correctly.
Evan Carter/Josh Jung health – With the Rangers having such a young team at several spots, there are expectations that several of these players will become perennial All-Stars and carry the team as the likes of Seager and Semien begin to age.
That’s what made Carter and Jung’s injury-ravaged campaigns so bitterly disappointing. Carter was initially on the 10-day injured list and was eventually ruled out for the season after seeing specialists and being diagnosed with a lumbar sprain. It should be noted that Carter looked nowhere near as dynamic as he did in his limited run the previous year; however, considering the back issues, this is hardly surprising.
It was reported at the time that Carter had little long-term concerns as he merely needed to rest and recuperate without putting torque on his back.
Jung missed most of his time at the beginning of the season after being hit with a wayward pitch, which caused his wrist to break. After surgery, he returned in late July and played for most of the season moving forward, where, after finding his groove, he looked to be approaching the levels we had seen the previous year from him.
It remains to be seen if he will be able to repeat as an All-Star after achieving this accolade in his rookie season; expectations are high within the organisation, though, that this could be a regular fixture with him in Rangers colours for the next 10 years.
Nathan Eovaldi re-signing – When Eovaldi declined his player option in November last year, there were fears that he may have played his last games in Rangers colours. After testing the free agent market, he re-signed again in a three-year deal for $75 million dollars.
Bruce Bochy named Eovaldi as the starter for Opening Day for the second year in a row. Eovaldi is a solid middle-of-the-rotation veteran who should eat innings and bring stability to the club both on the field and in the clubhouse.
Last year, Eovaldi pitched 170 innings to a 3.80 ERA, which earned him a 2.3 bWAR. An underrated aspect of this signing is the fact that with rookie starters Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker figuring to impact this season, Eovaldi is the perfect role model for these young pitchers as he is known to be diligent and thoughtful in his preparation in season and out.
Kyle Higashioka signing – After playing for the San Diego Padres last year, Higashioka signed for Texas in a deal worth $ 13.5 million over two years with a potential mutual option in the third year. Higashioka had a fine season last year with an OBP+ of 101 and was a tick above average defensively and controlling the basepaths.
What makes this signing newsworthy is the potential knock-on factor this has for starter Jonah Heim, who followed up his All-Star season with an absolute dud. Heim, who has always made at least 111 appearances as a catcher in a season since becoming the starter in Texas, could really benefit from an experienced backup to ensure he is fresh and capable of bringing his best when called upon.
Lack of closer – Kirby Yates had a great season in 2024, being named as a closer to the All-Star game while earning 33 saves and pitching to a 1.17 ERA.
The issue in Arlington, though, is that Yates was one of the many who signed in Los Angeles for the Dodgers. With no pitcher on the current Rangers roster having registered a save last season for them, President of Baseball Operations Chris Young appears to be happy to give a closer-by-committee approach a go rather than signing a like-for-like replacement.
The closer used will be dependent on match ups and rest days, to go along with this there have been a number of pitchers signed with various arm slots and handedness to allow for a greater variety of match ups.
One to Watch
Kumar Rocker – The 2022 third-overall pick had an electric end to the season in Double-A, pitching to a 0.46 ERA and then a 1.80 ERA after moving up to Triple-A. This was enough to earn him a late-season call-up to the majors, where he certainly didn’t do himself a disservice, pitching to a 3.86 ERA and averaging over a strikeout per inning in three games.
What makes this even more impressive is that it was his first season coming back from Tommy John surgery, so while progress certainly isn’t linear, it is fair to think he should only get better this year.
Rocker’s options were left open by Bruce Bochy coming into spring training, there was the option for him to be a back end of the rotation starter, a call up during the season or perhaps even have a crack at the closer role if they decided to name one starting closer.
Thanks to the recent injuries to starting pitchers Jon Gray and Cody Bradford, it appears that Rocker will be pushed into the starting rotation, potentially alongside his former team-mate at the University of Vanderbilt, Jack Leiter.
Reasons for Optimism
Jacob deGrom surgery – While this is the same seemingly every offseason now, there is genuine hope and logic to think that deGrom might be set to become the ace that Chris Young envisioned when he signed him to his mammoth five-year $185,000,000 contract.
After delaying Tommy John surgery for a few seasons, deGrom was left with no alternative but to take the surgery. The hope in Arlington is that this will give him a clean slate of sorts to move on with, when fit there are still few better in the sport.
The future is bright – Having already mentioned some of the young players in this article, it is absolutely fair to say that the Rangers perhaps have the most potential future All-Stars on their roster out of anyone in the league.
Quite a few of these players are already on the major league roster, so won’t show up on prospect lists, but just to name a few who are tipped to have accolade-laden futures are: Evan Carter, Wyatt Langford, Josh Jung, Kumar Rocker, Jack Leiter, Josh Smith and Sebastian Walcott who has been named 17th on MLB.coms top 100 prospect list.
The really exciting thing for Rangers fans in comparison to other teams with top prospects littered throughout the team is the fact that just about all of these guys will start or play huge roles this season. There are sure to be the ups and downs that come with getting acclimated to the major leagues, but it is certainly an exciting time to be a Rangers fan.
Things can’t be this bad again, surely? – This seems slightly silly but also very obvious; with so many key players last year having a markedly down year in comparison to most of their careers, then regression to the mean seems likely.
While this is typically used in a negative context it is just as true in a positive one, Semien, Heim, Garcia, Leody Taveras, and Lowe all had noticeably down years in comparison to recent seasons according to bWAR.
Even if some of these players don’t get back to their form prior to 2024 either because of age (Semien) or inconsistency (Taveras), there should still be bouncebacks between these players and the ones coming back from injuries.
Young pitchers – I’ve already mentioned Kumar Rocker in my “one to watch” section of this article, that accolade easily could have went to his former college teammate Jack Leiter. Leiter was the second overall pick in the 2021 draft and has been tipped to break out just about every season since.
Leiter received a call-up last year, and while the results weren’t great, judging from interviews within the organization and Leiter, this proved to be beneficial for Leiter in the long run as it will allow him to make the adjustments needed to course correct.
Is Corey Seager just getting better? – After his World Series MVP in 2023, Seager seemed to carry this form into last season, where he hit 30 home runs and contributed towards a 5.0 bWAR which led the team.
He was not quite as good as his form the previous year, but he was still better than his career output, which leads many to wonder if he has reached a new tier as a player altogether.
Considering he was an MVP candidate year-in, year-out, this is lofty praise, but rightfully so; with a bounce-back year from some of his other teammates this will hopefully take some of the pressure from Seager’s shoulders and could lead to more opportunities for RBI and meaningful plate appearances deep into the season and beyond.
2025 Prediction
After a truly disappointing season in 2024, I think it’s clear the Rangers will bounce-back but I think they will do so in a meteoric fashion.
They will again be one of the top offensive teams in baseball with one of the deepest lineups available in the league; you can take your pick for potential MVP candidates: Seager, Garcia, Semien or Langford.
With the rest of the AL West treading water at best, I think the Rangers take the division fairly comfortably, and I will be oddly specific and call a record of 92-70.
Anything other than the playoffs again will be deemed a failure considering the talent at the team’s disposal, and thanks to the fantastic work of Chris Young and many others in the organisation, there is now depth to go alongside this high-end talent.
My final prediction for this season is either absurd or obvious, depending on where you sit. Jacob deGrom will finish in the top three in Cy Young and be back to his usual self for this year, at least.
Featured image of Marcus Semien and Corey Seager by Dylan Buell/Getty Images
Debut article by John Cruickshank. You can follow him on social media: @johncruickshan8 and @johncruickshank92.bsky.social – Hopefully, you will see more content from John on Bat Flips & Nerds throughout the 2025 season.
