I guess the joke’s on me for getting my hopes up. The Rangers are playing bad baseball again, and I’m really sad about it.

Following last weekend’s disaster-fest in Seattle, Texas kicked off its next stretch of games with two big wins over the Yankees, a team directly in front of them in the standings. I was in attendance for the second of those wins, and it was a ton of fun. Here’s a wonderful video—taken by my friend Zion Trammell—of Rowdy Tellez, of all people, coming up with a big hit in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Things were looking up until, once again, the bottom fell out. The offense couldn’t hit to save its life, and the pitching—while still good enough to win for pretty much any other team in the league—wasn’t enough to overcome the lack of run support. Four consecutive losses followed, including three demoralizing defeats at the hands of the Phillies over this past weekend.

Chris Young and the front office bet on the offense the team had employed all season to turn it around. They did this by not acquiring any additional weapons to help out the lineup at the trade deadline. At the time, the move was head-scratching, but it was defensible given that the prices for impact bats were probably a bit too steep. Now, with the offense floundering once again, I’m left shaking my head at what could’ve been.

Long story short, the offense just doesn’t function properly, and for no apparent reason. There are good players on this team who have hit well before, but the second they stepped foot in the batter’s box at the beginning of the regular season in a Rangers uniform, all that skill seemed to be washed away. Even stars like Corey Seager haven’t been immune to the terrible vibes.

Without a functioning offense, this team can’t go anywhere. Sure, the pitching staff is fantastic, with Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi being legitimate candidates to win the Cy Young Award at the end of the season. The bullpen, while erratic at times, has been more than good enough. It’s just the offense, and it always has been.

The Rangers’ ability to score runs was the sole reason they won the World Series in 2023. Texas led the American League in runs scored (881), batting average (.263), and OPS (.790). In comparison to this year’s statistics, one might cry. With 43 games to go, those numbers have cratered—482 runs scored, a .232 batting average, and a .676 OPS. That’s the story right there. Nothing else needs to be said.

Texas plays the Diamondbacks tonight, the team it beat in the World Series two years ago, in what might be one of the more crucial series of the season. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that if they lose this series, they might as well pack it up. The potential for a playoff appearance is currently slipping through their fingers. Can they stop it?

Seattle is the Bad Place, at least when it comes to the Rangers.

Yesterday, Texas concluded a seven-game road trip that took them to Anaheim and Seattle. Over the course of last week, we saw the continued shortcomings of the team despite their recent surge in the standings. The offense—which had improved to a degree we hadn’t seen all year—was anemic in certain moments (especially in Seattle), while the back end of the bullpen, though still potent and dominant for the most part, has some glaring holes that desperately need to be addressed.

All of that led to a 2–5 trip, leaving the Rangers two games behind the Mariners for the final Wild Card spot and 4.5 games behind the AL West-leading Houston Astros. Honestly, it could’ve been worse.

Still, the vibes heading into this ever-important homestand—which sees the team face off against the Yankees (a team directly ahead of them in the Wild Card standings) and the Philadelphia Phillies (one of the best squads in the National League)—are not fantastic. But baseball is a fickle sport, and the lows that seem to go on forever can disappear as quickly as they came about.

There’s still a lot to talk about when it comes to this past week of Rangers baseball, and in my little post last night, I outlined some of the points I want to address today. Let’s get into it.

Jacob deGrom’s Sudden Decline

Jacob deGrom, the team’s co-ace alongside Nathan Eovaldi, has not been himself for the better part of a month, especially this past week. Whether that’s because teams are figuring him out or it’s simply general fatigue from the larger workload he’s taken on this year compared to recent seasons is anybody’s guess. Regardless, the Rangers desperately need him to be the ace he can be, and they need it now.

Against the Angels on Monday, July 28, deGrom struggled with his command. He walked only one batter, but the pitches that were finding the strike zone were not of the quality we’re used to seeing from him. As such, the Angels, who aren’t even that good of a baseball team, pounced. They scored five runs on the two-time Cy Young winner, with three of those runs coming off a pair of long balls. When he departed the game, he’d gone 5 1/3 innings, allowed five runs on seven hits, struck out eight—you’ll never take that part out of his game, no matter how poorly he’s throwing—and walked one. The ERA: 2.55.

Yesterday afternoon’s outing versus the Mariners was far more concerning to me than the one against the Angels. The command was once again iffy—of the 95 pitches he threw, only 59 landed for strikes—as he walked three batters. Uncharacteristically for Seattle and T-Mobile Park, the ball was flying yesterday, which usually wouldn’t be a big deal for a pitcher like deGrom, but since he was throwing meatballs when he wasn’t missing the zone, the Mariners were launching homers like nobody’s business. Three baseballs left the park off deGrom, continuing that terrible trend.

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If I’ve learned anything throughout my time as a Rangers fan, it’s that they can’t win in Seattle, Washington. They could be playing against a group of raccoons and they’d probably still lay a big, fat egg.

I’ll have more thoughts on Texas’ disastrous road trip tomorrow (I’m at work and don’t have time to do a deep dive into everything that transpired), but for now, here are some quick thoughts:

• Jacob deGrom just wasn’t himself in his two starts this past week. In fact, he really hasn’t been the deGrom we all know for about a month. Whether that’s because teams are figuring him out or it’s simply general fatigue from the larger workload he’s taken on this year compared to recent seasons is anybody’s guess. I’ll look into deGrom’s supposed decline tomorrow, but what I do know now is that the Rangers desperately need him to be an ace.

• Losing games in Seattle is one thing—but it’s the way the Rangers manage to lose that’s infuriating. Whether it’s a game that’s completely uncompetitive and therefore embarrassing (Thursday night), a collapse of epic proportions (Friday night), or your team’s best pitcher having a terrible day while the offense refuses to help (this afternoon), it’s always just a terrible, terrible time.

• Joc Pederson does not need to be in the lineup right now. His .126/.256/.217 slash line (.473 OPS) should be enough proof that he’s just not someone who should be hitting fifth—of all places. And his at-bat in the bottom of the ninth this afternoon? Terrible.

• I hope Robert Garcia is OK—he left Saturday’s game midway through his outing with what the team called mid-back spasms. That said, his role in this weekend’s general “I want to pull my hair out because this is so infuriating” shenanigans is clear evidence that he should not be the team’s option in the ninth inning. Two blown saves—both via two-run home runs that either tied the game or won it for Seattle—are not good enough. And five blown saves on the season? Also, well, not fantastic.

• Shoutout to the following players for being cool and fun: Danny Coulombe, Phil Maton, Merrill Kelly (all three acquired at the trade deadline and absolutely lived up to expectations), Corey Seager, Adolis García (on Sunday in particular, when he finished a triple shy of the cycle), Cole Winn, and Rowdy Tellez (he’s just a fun watch).

There’s definitely a whole lot more to be said, so that’ll be done when there’s more time tomorrow.

The record after stops in Southern California and Seattle: 58–55. Two games back of the Mariners for the final Wild Card spot. I’m sure the Rangers are trying to get back to the plane as fast as possible. Getting them out of Seattle can only help.

But then the tides turned, and Texas pushed its chips to the middle of the table.

Three trades were made by the Rangers yesterday, each adding to the major league pitching staff. LHP Danny Coulombe, RHP Merrill Kelly, and RHP Phil Maton were the haul. All three are arms that make the best pitching staff in baseball that much better.

Zero external upgrades were made to the offense, which is the one gripe that could be had about the Rangers’ deadline decisions. The pitching—what Chris Young and the rest of the front office chose to improve—has been the team’s strength. It’s the lineup that’s lagged behind. Still, no bats. That’s curious.

I’m not sure whether that’s because they didn’t feel anything was worth it or because the prices for some of the impact bats that were moved were too high. Either way, it’s a bit of a letdown that nothing eye-popping was added offensively—especially since the front office and ownership seemingly decided that the budgetary restraints that appeared to be holding the team back weren’t in place during this deadline. More on that in a bit.

So, let’s dive into each of these trades one at a time and analyze what each brings to the table for the rest of the season.

LHP Danny Coulombe

The price: LHP Garrett Horn (Single-A Hickory)

On paper, trading for Coulombe isn’t a flashy move. In practice, however, it might end up being one of the more consequential deals of the deadline, especially at this price.

Coulombe has been one of the most underrated relief arms in the league since his age-31 season in 2021, during which he’s posted a 2.44 ERA over 158.2 IP. When healthy—and that’s been an issue throughout his career—he’s one of the better bullpen pieces a team can have.

What makes it even better is his performance this season. So far in 2025, he has an astounding 1.16 ERA over 31 IP.

Wow.

Just... whoa.

For a bullpen that’s already third in the majors in ERA to add a dude with those numbers is pretty neat, if I do say so myself.

If I had to guess, he’ll likely slot in with LHP Hoby Milner, RHP Shawn Armstrong, and RHP Chris Martin (when he returns from his calf injury) in that back-end leverage role. He’s a reverse-splits guy—he pitches better against righties (.164 BAA) than lefties (.211 BAA)—so expect him to face a lot of right-handed bats down the stretch.

Here’s a glimpse at some of the more advanced statistics, courtesy of Baseball Savant:

The succinct version? Coulombe will almost certainly be an integral piece of the bullpen puzzle the rest of the season. On its own, the move likely wasn’t enough to push the Rangers over the edge. But the trades that followed? Well, those might just be.

RHP Merrill Kelly

The price: LHP Mitch Bratt (Double-A Frisco), LHP Kohl Drake (Double-A Frisco), RHP David Hagaman (Single-A Hickory)

If you’d told me the Rangers would trade for an impact starting pitcher at the beginning of the day, I’d have probably thought you were bananas. But you’d have been right.

Kelly isn’t the flashiest of names, but he’s a solid starter who fits perfectly behind the two-headed monster of Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi. With that one-two-three punch, the top of the Rangers’ rotation is filthy. All they have to do is get into the postseason, and no team will want to face them because of that rotation.

The lowdown on Kelly: he’s a veteran arm who, at one point, looked bound never to step foot on a major league mound. But after being released by Tampa Bay in 2014, he went to South Korea and pitched well in the KBO. That caught the attention of MLB teams again, and the Diamondbacks ultimately brought him back stateside. Now, here we are—Kelly just brought in quite the haul for Arizona, while Texas gets a reliable pitcher posting one of the best seasons of his career.

It’s a remarkable story and a testament to how things can work out for those with the work ethic and determination to keep going.

The one glaring downside to this otherwise fantastic trade is the price. That trio of pitching prospects—Bratt, Drake, and Hagaman—were all arms I really liked. I’m not sure how the rest of their careers would’ve played out (in Bratt and Drake’s case, I could see a bullpen future), but it’s still sad to see familiar prospects leave. Trading Drake is especially tough—he’s a DFW native from Wylie, and it would’ve been cool to see him pitch for his hometown team.

Nonetheless, the Rangers got better by acquiring Kelly. He adds to what’s already one of the best rotations in baseball. If I had to guess, he’ll likely replace Kumar Rocker in the rotation, sending the rookie right-hander to the bullpen, a scenario I actually like.

Oh, one more thing: if you recall, the Rangers lost just one game in the 2023 World Series. Who started that game for Arizona? Merrill Kelly.

RHP Phil Maton

The price: RHP Skylar Hales, LHP Mason Molina, and international bonus pool money

This one was surprising.

Never in a million years did I think Phil Maton, of all people, would be a Texas Ranger, especially given the history between him and the franchise.

Let me take you back to the beginning of the 2024 season. The Rangers started hot, with Josh Jung launching into the year on fire. That momentum was crushed when the team arrived in Tampa to face the Rays. Why? Because of what Phil Maton did.

Jung missed most of the 2024 season, and once he returned, he was never quite the same.

I have no definitive proof that Maton intentionally hit Jung’s hand. The only circumstantial evidence? Maton pitched for the Astros for several seasons, and the bad blood between Houston and Texas is well documented.

But once Jung and Maton hash things out—as they’ll no doubt have to in the coming days—the merits of this trade become clearer. For one, Maton is having a great year. Through 40 relief appearances, he has a 2.35 ERA. If the season ended today, that’d be the best ERA of his career. He’s got electric stuff, and according to some reports (though I’m not sure how well-founded they are), Maton could be an option at closer. Since the team doesn’t have a definitive ninth-inning stopper at the moment, any name in the mix is legitimate.

The end-all-be-all with Maton? He becomes a core member of a bullpen that’s already among the best in the league. That’s what I call strengthening a strength.

Perhaps the biggest development from the trade deadline is that the Rangers decided to soar past the Competitive Balance Tax line. This was a big surprise, given that it was previously believed the team would try to stay below that threshold at all costs. But owner Ray Davis pulled out the checkbook, and for that, we all should be grateful.

The most obvious reason to stay below that line is the penalties incurred when a team crosses it. Here’s the rule:

A team that exceeded the CBT threshold in the preceding season [the Rangers did] will lose its second- and fifth-highest selections in the following year’s Draft, as well as $1 million from its international bonus pool for the upcoming signing period. If such a team signs multiple qualifying-offer free agents, it will forfeit its third- and sixth-highest picks as well.

On its face, that’s a hefty penalty. But the Rangers are in win-now mode, so forfeiting draft picks and international bonus money isn’t as big of a deal (at least short term) as some might think.

If anything, it’s a vote of confidence in this year’s group. The Rangers are now betting on this pitching staff (heck yeah!) and this offense (that might be a bad idea) to get it done. We’ll see how it plays out. For now, let’s enjoy the fact that the Rangers are all-in on winning—more than you can say for half the teams in the majors.

Everybody be grateful that Adolis García is still on the team.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the possibility of García being traded, but once the team started winning, that concern faded. That is, until I saw this tweet.

Panic ensued among Rangers fans. Was it real? If so, why? What was going on?

Well, it turns out it wasn’t real, and everything was OK. I think our biggest clue should’ve been the spelling errors.

And in the end, it all turned into a big ole joke on social media. You’ve got to love it when that happens.

I’m glad García is still here. He’s a franchise legend and will have my wholehearted support as long as he’s an Arlington resident.

So, that’s where we stand. The Rangers dealt a big chunk of their pitching depth in the farm system with the goal of bolstering the big-league staff. The arms are better. The offense stayed the same.

Chris Young and the Rangers are clearly betting that the bats will improve down the stretch—and while that’s an admirable hope, I’m not sure it’s a realistic one. Personally, I’ve seen enough to know this group of offensive weapons is inconsistent at best and unwatchable at worst. But who knows? Maybe I’m wrong and they’ll ride their July hot streak all the way to the end.

As things stand, the Rangers are a game back of the final Wild Card spot, with three more games against the Mariners—the team directly ahead of them—on deck this weekend. There’s no doubt this is an important stretch. All that remains is to see how they perform.

Today’s the day. It’s the trade deadline.

At 5 p.m. CT, no more trades can be made between MLB teams for the remainder of the season. It’s a pivotal moment, there’s no doubt. For those that believe they’re in the hunt for a playoff spot, today’s the last day that they can go out and buy some more ammunition to help further that cause. And for those that have fallen out of contention, today’s the final day that they can offload those pieces and gain some assets for them.

But I’m here for the Texas Rangers, who’ve suddenly found themselves in a position to push the chips into the middle of the table. After winning back-to-back series over the Astros and Tigers, the team then rattled off six consecutive wins to move to 56-50. In classic baseball fashion, that hot streak was followed up by losing a series to the Angels of all teams—moving the record to 57-52—but the point still stands. The Rangers are probably going to make a couple trades today to make the roster better.

Now, what those are, I don’t know. There’s been rampant speculation regarding Texas adding bullpen arms, but some of the best available relievers (Jhoan Duran, Ryan Helsley) have already come off the board. Two big bats they were possibly linked to in Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez both wound up with the division-rival Seattle Mariners.

The clock is ticking. President of baseball operations Chris Young has undoubtedly been working the phones for the better part of the last week. However, nothing’s transpired. We’ll see what he ends up deciding to do, who he ends up deciding to trade for and who he decides to give away.

It’s bound to be an interesting day, and I’ll be here updating you fine readers through it all.

At 5 p.m. CT, the trade window officially slams shut. No more deals. No more big-time roster tweaks. For contenders, it’s the final chance to load up for a playoff push. For teams on the outside looking in, it’s the last call to ship out some pieces and restock the farm.

And then there’s the Texas Rangers, who are suddenly back in the conversation.

After winning back-to-back series over the Astros and Tigers, the team then rattled off six consecutive wins to move to 56-50. In classic baseball fashion, that hot streak was followed up by losing a series to the Angels of all teams—moving the record to 57-52—but the point still stands: the Rangers are probably going to make a couple trades today to make the roster better.

What exactly that entails is still up in the air.

There’s been widespread speculation about Texas adding bullpen help, but some of the most coveted relievers—Jhoan Duran, Ryan Helsley—are already off the board. Two big bats they were rumored to be interested in, Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez, landed instead with the division-rival Mariners. The price for those assets was expensive, so now the question becomes: what’s left, and what’s worth paying for?

The clock is ticking. President of Baseball Operations Chris Young has no doubt been working the hones relentlessly over the past week. But as of now (10:05 a.m. CT), no deals have materialized.

We’ll see what he and the team decide to do. Who does he trade for, and who is he willing to part with to make it happen?

It’s bound to be an interesting day. And I’ll be here, updating you fine readers every step of the way.

53–50.

As the Rangers continue to climb above .500, I’m struck by just how different the vibes are around the team. Two weeks ago, they were 45–48 and coming off a disastrous 11–8 loss to the Angels. The bullpen had just blown a lead, and the wheels—which had been slowly falling off for a little over two months—were on the verge of completely coming loose. It was dire then. Now? Not so much.

Yesterday’s 2–1 win over the A’s completed the three-game sweep. While the offense was, once again, kind of pitiful (save for Corey Seager’s magnificent, majestic, and marvelous solo home run in the top of the third), it was the pitching—and some help from the baseball gods—that gave the Rangers the victory.

Don’t believe me on that last part? Check out this absolutely asinine defensive effort by the A’s that resulted in the winning run coming around to score:

On the pitching side of things, what a revelation Patrick Corbin has been. When that signing was made back in the late stages of spring training, I was under the impression he was just here to give the pitching staff some length and provide innings following the injuries to Jon Gray and Cody Bradford. While that’s definitely what he’s done, he’s actually doing it well. Last night: 5 2/3 innings, five hits, one run, seven strikeouts, zero walks. On the season: 3.78 ERA over 104 2/3 IP. It’s easily his best season since 2019—the year his Washington Nationals won the World Series. A revelation.

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I am here to admit that, at least in the short term, I was wrong.

Here is Exhibit A of my guilt:

And here is Michael Helman, another one of the “nobodies” who emerged last night as a hero in a victorious effort against the Athletics:

Ladies and gentlemen, I have egg on my face.

Freeman’s base knock was the first of his big-league career, and for that, I send him my sincerest congratulations. I have no idea how many more of those he’ll rack up throughout his time in Major League Baseball, but for his sake—and also for mine—I hope there are many more to come.

For Helman, that home run was the first long ball of his time in the majors. Just like with Freeman, his stint with the Rangers might have an expiration date that’s fast approaching, but that doesn’t mean we all can’t revel in his outstanding accomplishments for the time being.

I mean, wow. Honestly, I’m in awe of what occurred last night. When I watched those two pick up those big hits, I was struck with a sense of amazement I haven’t felt in a very long time. Baseball truly is an incredible sport, and Freeman and Helman showcased that to the fullest extent yesterday evening.

Perhaps the more pertinent development from last night was the Rangers’ dominant 7–2 win, which brought them back over .500 once again. At 51–50, the time is now to start pushing the pedal to the metal.

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One hundred games have come and gone, and the Texas Rangers are as mediocre as you could possibly be.

Fifty wins. Fifty losses.

Last night’s Sunday Night Baseball bout against the American League-best Detroit Tigers felt like a playoff game. Excellent pitching by Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal stymied a Texas lineup that had no business—Corey Seager being the lone exception—facing such a talented arm. Jacob Latz and the rest of the Rangers’ pitching staff were fine, but when the offense only scores one measly run, there’s really not much to work with.

So, here we are. To be honest, given where the team was just several weeks ago—down in the dumps and hanging on by a thread—being .500 through 100 games is honestly a win. It’s especially impressive considering the Rangers just won a series against the aforementioned Tigers, despite losing the finale last night. That’s what I call progress.

This past weekend was interesting. The Rangers won 2–0 on Friday after Patrick Corbin once again turned in a formidable outing—5 2/3 innings of shutout baseball while allowing only three hits—and Seager delivered the clutch RBIs necessary to pull out the victory. On Saturday, Kumar Rocker delivered another fantastic performance following his demotion to Triple-A and subsequent promotion, going 6 1/3 innings, allowing no runs on one hit with five strikeouts and three walks. Rocker is improving, and the following numbers, courtesy of beat writer Evan Grant, perfectly illustrate that fact:

But then Skubal stepped onto the rubber and did what he does best: dominate. Eleven Texas hitters went down on strikes against the reigning Cy Young winner (15 strikeouts total on the night). The only run came home via a wild pitch thrown to the batter immediately after Skubal was lifted from the game by Tigers manager A.J. Hinch. Some lackluster work by Chris Martin—who ended up leaving the game due to a leg injury—gave Detroit the lead in the eighth inning, and that was that. The Rangers mustered just four hits on the evening and didn’t draw a walk. I didn’t play baseball past high school, but I’m smart enough to know that’s not a winning recipe.

While last night left a bad taste in the mouth, the overall work done by the team over the past week (not including the All-Star break) is encouraging. Back-to-back series wins over the Astros and Tigers were not something I had on the bingo card—but hey, I’ll take it.

Where does this leave the outlook for the rest of the campaign? It’s an interesting question, one that I’m not sure we’ll have a clear answer to until the end of this week. Two massive series are on deck—three games against the Athletics and then three more against the Atlanta Braves. Win four out of those six, and I think we’re looking at a team that’s going to want to try and contend in 2025. Split those games—or worse, lose four, five, or, God forbid, all six—and things start to get dicey.

The fact of the matter is that if the Rangers are three to four games (or fewer) back of the Wild Card by the end of the week, then the front office probably decides to lock it in and compete this season. And given how they’ve played recently, that’s certainly not out of the question.

We have to talk about the lineup the Rangers sent out there against Skubal yesterday. Let me be clear—Skubal might be the best pitcher in the league, and any group of nine hitters the Rangers threw out there likely would’ve struggled. Additionally, Skubal is a lefty, so Bruce Bochy—who’s notoriously savvy when it comes to left-right matchups—went with a lineup that featured a lot of right-handed hitters, perhaps to the detriment of the end product.

Here’s the lineup:

1. Wyatt Langford - CF

2. Corey Seager (L) - SS

3. Marcus Semien - 2B

4. Adolis García - RF

5. Kyle Higashioka - DH

6. Jonah Heim (S) - C

7. Cody Freeman - 3B

8. Justin Foscue - 1B

9. Ezequiel Duran - LF

That bottom of the order is, frankly, unacceptable. Cody Freeman—who’s only up right now because Texas is lacking infield help after Josh Jung was sent down to Triple-A to figure some things out and Jake Burger went down with (another) injury—was awarded his first two at-bats in the big leagues against Tarik Skubal, of all people. It’s safe to say it did not go all that well.

Justin Foscue and Ezequiel Duran, two players who once had promising futures—Duran especially—are certified non-threats at the plate right now. Every time they came up to bat, there was no doubt in my mind that the plate appearance would result in an out. That might be rude, but it’s true. For a team allegedly in contention for a playoff spot, fielding a lineup with that horrendous of a bottom three is, to put it lightly, undesirable.

OK, you might think I’m exaggerating. Just take a look at how Foscue and Duran’s crucial eighth-inning at-bats went against Tigers reliever Tyler Holton:

Nope. Got to do better than that, fellas.

I’m aware that it’s a problem that’s really nobody’s fault except fate’s. Injuries and underwhelming performances from players who were expected to contribute more have allowed the lineup to decay into a state of sadness every once in a while—especially when a lefty toes the rubber. Sigh.

Corey Seager might own Tarik Skubal, and that’s pretty neat.

After last night’s game, Seager is now 8-for-12 in his career against Skubal. He notched two of those hits last night—an opposite-field double in the first and a scorching single in the fourth. Skubal finally retired him in the sixth, and it elicited a candidly triumphant response from the Tigers’ ace.

It’s awesome that the Rangers employ a player who’s such a menace to opposing pitching staffs. Only during the heyday of Josh Hamilton in the early 2010s has a Texas hitter been more feared than Seager has been over the past four years.

And hey, for old time’s sake, let’s relive one of the greatest moments in franchise history: Corey Seager’s game-tying two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth in Game 1 of the 2023 World Series.

I think I’ve probably watched that 1,000 times over the past year and a half. Ah, what a time. What. A. Time.

The All-Star Game has come and gone, which means the second half of the season is now upon us. Tomorrow, the Rangers will embark on perhaps the most important stretch of their 2025 campaign.

Given the information that will be gleaned from this next stretch of games, the front office will have some decisions to make. Do they buy pieces to try and help this version of the team succeed, or do they sell off some spare parts in hopes of reloading and competing next year? All of that—and maybe even more—will be answered in the coming weeks.

At 48–49, the Rangers are three and a half games back of a Wild Card spot and eight and a half behind the AL West–leading Houston Astros. While the situation has seemed dire for much of the season, the potential for a playoff berth is not as far-fetched as we might all think. A hot streak out of the break could be more than enough to propel the team forward toward success. But as we all know, that’s much easier said than done.

The schedule does not lend itself particularly well to a strong start. The Rangers will open the second half against the Detroit Tigers, the best team in the American League. After that is a series against the Athletics—a club Texas has not played well against this season—and then the talent-loaded but underperforming Atlanta Braves. All those contests will be played at home at Globe Life Field, which should be a good boost.

Should the Rangers come out of those three series still in the fight for a playoff spot, then I believe Chris Young and the rest of the front office should (if they will is an entirety different question) decide to push all the chips into the middle of the table. After all, windows of contention can close as quickly as they open, so it’s important to capitalize on each and every opportunity. Of course, the jury is still out on whether this particular season is indeed one where the Rangers could truly contend, but that’s neither here nor there. (It’s obviously not neither here nor there; I just say that to make myself feel better.)

But what if the team fails to play up to par over the next two weeks and instead falls flat on its face? What then? Well, it’d be time to open up the storefront and declare ourselves ready for business.

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It’s such a shame that Luke Jackson, of all people, is the only player wearing 77 in the DFW Metroplex right now. What should’ve been a number heralded as Luka Dončić’s in this town has instead been relegated to a subpar relief pitcher for the Texas Rangers. How? Why?

Jackson was signed 18 days after Dončić was traded to the Lakers, and at the time, he was hyped up to be the Rangers’ new closer. That’s the role he started the season with, but as the year has progressed, it’s become abundantly clear that Jackson just doesn’t have what it takes to pitch in clutch situations late in games.

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This is your daily Texas Rangers update. Today, we’ll dive deep into everything involving the Rangers!

Oh, they lost? Wait, they lost to the Angels? The Angels, the team that’s been a consistent disappointment for over a decade? The Angels, the team that wasted the beginning of Shohei Ohtani’s stateside career?

Timeout. They lost on a walk-off walk? Ugh, this season is a pointless endeavor.

Carry on, everybody. No need to waste space on the internet.

Last Friday, the Rangers embarked on what’s poised to be their most important road trip of the season.

With the trade deadline approaching at the end of this month, the results of three games in San Diego, four in Anaheim, and three in Houston could very well determine how the front office decides to approach the rest of the season. Perform well over the next week, and the Rangers might decide to push toward a playoff berth in 2025. Continue to tread water in mediocrity, however, and it might be time to sell and look ahead to 2026.

As things currently stand, Texas is 44–46, just two games shy of the elusive .500 mark. The race for the American League West appears all but over. The Astros now lead the Rangers by 11 games, and the Mariners are in second place, seven games back. The more pressing pursuit is the hunt for a Wild Card spot. The Rangers are four games behind the Mariners, who currently hold the final Wild Card position. There’s certainly a path to the postseason, but for the front office to believe it's even a possibility, the players on the field need to start pulling their weight, and soon.

Over the past month, the Rangers’ quest for .500 has been a recurring theme. There have been moments where the team is just one game away from evening its record, only for a disappointing result to push it further away. After all, a team can’t climb the standings if it never manages to win more games than it loses.

The most recent example of being so close yet so far came this weekend against the Padres. After losing on the 4th of July in another backbreaking extra-innings affair, the Rangers rallied for an impressive 7–4 victory on Saturday to even the series. Perhaps more important was the fact that Texas was now just one game under .500, meaning a win on Sunday in San Diego wouldn’t just seal a series win, it would also secure the ever-so-crucial even record.

But, much like the entirety of this season, disappointment lurked. Despite taking a 1–0 lead just two batters into the game, the Rangers looked continuously inept on offense en route to a 4–1 defeat. Is that really a surprise, though?

No matter what the front office decides to do at the deadline, the 2025 Texas Rangers will be remembered for one thing and one thing only: a terrible offense that wasted some of, if not the best, pitching this franchise has ever seen.

Let’s just go down the line of pitchers who have been standout performers all season long:

• Nathan Eovaldi, the 2023 postseason hero whom the Rangers re-signed to a three-year, $75 million contract this past offseason, has posted a 1.75 ERA over 14 starts and 77 1/3 innings. He’s completely transformed his pitching style from earlier in his career, when he was a fireball-throwing righty who overpowered hitters. Now, he’s an old-school hoss who knows his way around the strike zone and outsmarts hitters left and right. Even a triceps injury that sidelined him for several weeks couldn’t derail the momentum Eovaldi had built.

• Jacob deGrom might be the best pitcher to don a Rangers uniform in the 21st century. That’s right, he’s been that good this season. Just look at the numbers: a 2.13 ERA over 101 1/3 innings across 17 starts. Those stats become even more impressive considering the context of deGrom’s career. His 17 starts this season are the most he’s had in a single campaign since 2019, when he started 32 games for the Mets. Injuries have repeatedly derailed his greatness, but 2025 is clear evidence that when he’s on the mound, he’s one of the best to ever do it. He’s the only Ranger, outside of injury replacements, selected to the American League All-Star team, and he’s certainly earned it. Every time deGrom takes the mound, I’m confident the Rangers will win. It’s been a pleasure watching him pitch this season. I just wish he was pitching for a better team.

• Can you believe Patrick Corbin is actually not bad? When the Rangers signed him toward the end of spring training, I wrote a piece about how Corbin was essentially here to take the ball every five days, eat innings, and take losses for the sake of saving other arms. He’s done the first two tasks exceptionally well, and instead of losing, he’s actually done some winning too. Corbin, while neither dominant nor particularly threatening, has been a perfectly serviceable member of the rotation. With several others going down to injury throughout the season, Corbin has been steady.

• Jack Leiter is a rookie pitcher going through the rookie pitcher motions. At times, he’s looked like the top-end talent we were promised. At others, he appears to still be learning on the job, which is totally fine, by the way. Leiter has met my expectations, which is a pleasant sight for a member of the 2025 Rangers.

There are several other arms that have been solid. Chris Martin, Robert Garcia, and Hoby Milner have all been reliable bullpen contributors. Unfortunately, due to the offense’s inability to put games away, the relievers have been overworked since the beginning of the season. At this point, some of them look pretty well spent. That’s just another side effect of a lineup that’s completely lost.

When we look back at the expectations for the 2025 Texas Rangers, we’ll keep pointing to the offense’s failures. Every national outlet I read predicted this lineup, featuring veteran stars like Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, alongside newcomers like Jake Burger and Joc Pederson, would return to form. Instead, the regression we saw in 2024 has continued, and the lineup as a whole, despite every change and tweak attempted by the coaching staff and front office, is a lost cause.

But who knows? Maybe these next seven games against the Angels and Astros will be the turnaround we’ve all been yearning for. Maybe this team fights to the very end, and we’ll all look back at the struggles of the first half and laugh. To be honest, though, that sounds more impossible than the Cowboys winning the Super Bowl.

I’ve gotten past being sad or angry about this team. At this point, I’m just disappointed. There was so much potential here, and for it all to be wasted is disheartening, to say the least.

Pack it up, everybody. Maybe this season is truly over.

Baseball is an incredibly challenging sport. Making contact with a fastball at 95+ MPH is so difficult that it’s hard to describe just how remarkable Major League Baseball hitters are. Still, when I watch the Rangers repeatedly fail at the minute details of hitting, I want to pull my hair out.

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Yesterday was a gut-check for the Texas Rangers. A pivotal moment where the season could’ve tilted toward redemption or spiraled further into the abyss. Win, and the fragile hope built over two weeks of scrappy series wins would spark a little brighter. Lose, and that flicker would get snuffed out like a torch at the end of a tribal council in Survivor.

They lost.

Josh Smith, one of the few guys on this roster still pulling their weight, nailed it after the Rangers’ 6-4 extra-innings disaster-fest against the Mariners: “Bad teams find a way to lose.”

I’m not here to dissect the box score or recap the game. If you want that, Jamey Newberg’s Substack has a gamer that’s, as always, pure gold. My goal is to dig into Smith’s words. Are the Rangers a bad team? Or is this just a frustrated player spitting venom after a winnable series slipped through their fingers?

The answer’s messy, somewhere in that gray zone between “dumpster fire” and “not dead yet.” But Smith’s got a point you can’t dodge. Every time the Rangers get a chance to flip the script, to grab this season by the throat and make it theirs, they choke. They don’t just lose, they invent ways to lose. A misplayed grounder here, a brain-dead base-running blunder there. That’s not bad luck; that’s the DNA of a team that’s lost its edge.

A couple of weeks back, I wrote about the Rangers after they got swept by the Rays in a game so ugly it made my stomach lurch. I swore I’d take a two-week break from this team, half-expecting to come back to the same old mess. And while some minor improvements have been made, not much has really changed. Back then, they were five games under .500 after that Tampa Bay debacle. Now? They’re just two games below that line. Two and a half games from a Wild Card spot, with the Blue Jays, Mariners, and Angels standing in their way. That’s progress, sure, like moving from the ICU to a regular hospital bed. You’re not dead, but you’re not exactly running marathons either.

What hasn’t changed is the real kicker: This team plays like a bad ballclub. You can feel it when you watch them. The Rangers of the early 2010s? They strutted onto the field like they owned it, a swagger that dared you to try and beat them. The 2023 squad? They carried a quiet confidence, knowing they could flip any game on its head with a potent offense that I yearn for everyday. But this 2025 crew? It’s like they’re tiptoeing through a minefield, second-guessing every step. You see it in the way they grip their bats too tight, the way they hesitate on routine plays. It’s not just losing, it’s the way they lose, like a team that’s forgotten how to believe in itself.

So yeah, Josh Smith’s right. This Rangers team, as it stands, is a bad baseball team. But here’s the twist: The postseason isn’t out of reach. The math says they’re still in the hunt, with a Wild Card berth right in front of their noses. If they can string together some wins this week against the Orioles and then gut out a strong road trip against the Padres, Angels, and Astros, that hope might still have a pulse. It’s a long shot, but it’s there.

If they don’t? Well, I’ll probably be back here in two weeks, writing the same story, just with a fresh coat of disappointment. For now, though, the Rangers are teetering on the edge. Which way they fall depends on whether they can find the grit to prove Josh Smith wrong.

Here’s the play:

What were they doing? Were there any thoughts in any of their heads? Were they all just thinking of Krabby Patties?

Seriously, though, some of the mistakes that they’ve been making over the last several weeks have been fairly amateur. They’re mistakes a coach pitch team would get yelled at for making. Like, I don’t know, can somebody please cover first base?

The Texas Rangers are a bad baseball team. The glimmer of hope that I thought I saw over the weekend was not even a spark. Their 29-34 record is honestly a pretty generous picture of their abilities. If not for some lucky one-run wins thanks to some pretty awesome pitching early in the season, that figure is probably a lot worse.

I’m sad.

For the betterment of my mental stability, this will be my final post regarding the Texas Rangers for two weeks. In 14 days time, I’ll come back to you with an update on where they are. At this current moment, they are bad. In two weeks, I expect much of the same.

See y’all in a fortnight.

Sometimes, all you need is a little hope. When times get rough and everything seems like it’s about to collapse, a little ray of sunshine can make all the difference.

Sports, just like regular old life, are no different. When a team is struggling to the extent that the Texas Rangers are right now, all you can do as a fan is attempt to find anything to grasp onto that will elicit any sort of excitement. Any glimpse, however small, of hope is a positive.

This past weekend, hope is what the Rangers finally provided. For the first time in what feels like forever, they managed to win a series, taking two games against the hated St. Louis Cardinals.

The first, a fantastic 11-1 victory on Friday, shocked the senses of Rangers fans everywhere, and we were all left wondering if somehow we’d all been transported back to 2023. Offensively, the lineup was producing like the team that was promised in the offseason, while the pitching was as dominant as it had been all year.

Let’s start with the offense because that’s what’s been failing Texas all year long. The Rangers put up a whopping 15 hits against a slew of Cardinals pitchers, including four—one of which was a two-run home run—from the much-maligned Marcus Semien. It was the first time in probably over a year that Semien provided us with an answer to the criticisms he’s faced throughout the last season or so. Would the bat speed ever return? Where are all the barreled-up baseballs? Is age finally catching up to him? Those are still valid questions to consider when evaluating Semien, but on Friday night, it was all a moot point. He played fantastically that evening, and for at least the next several days, he’s off the hook.

But Semien wasn’t the only standout performer on Friday. Sam Haggerty, Josh Jung, and Kyle Higashioka all put up multi-hit games. Wyatt Langford hit a laser beam of a home run—it left the bat at 106.1 MPH and traveled 390 feet—in the bottom of the second to extend a lead that was already fairly large. Haggerty continued to play above expectations with three RBIs. The situational hitting from players like Jung with his RBI single in the first and Haggerty with his RBI single in the sixth made my heart smile.

Overall, it was a great night for the offense, which was also aided by a fantastic bounce-back effort from Jack Leiter. The rookie hurler from Vanderbilt has had an up-and-down campaign, which was evident for all to see over his last two starts. Last Saturday against the Chicago White Sox, Leiter was what I’d call “fine.” He certainly lacked command through his five innings of work as he walked five and only struck out three batters. Of his 94 pitches, only 52 landed for strikes.

Those are the kinds of games Leiter is prone to having at times. His command gets shaky, and long innings featuring a lot of pitches and tons of traffic on the bases plague his day. But in the case of that game in Chicago, Leiter somehow still found a way to limit the damage, allowing just two earned runs. Talk about a tightrope act.

Friday’s game back at home in Arlington versus the Cardinals was the best that Leiter has to offer: 5 2/3 innings of work with six strikeouts and two walks. Most importantly, no runs crossed the plate with Leiter on the mound. I’d call that a striking success (no pun intended).

With that great win under their belt, the Rangers went into Saturday’s game with high spirits and hopes. Unfortunately, old habits die hard, and Texas went back to doing that thing where they don't score any runs. The 2-0 loss on Saturday marked the eighth time that the Rangers had been shut out this season. That happened just 10 times throughout the entirety of 2024. No bueno.

Unlike previous instances where they were blanked, the Rangers proceeded to come out the next day with the bats on fire en route to an 8-1 drubbing of St. Louis.

I’ll summarize this one in just a couple of sentences. Actually, all you really need is just two words: Jacob deGrom.

When the Rangers signed deGrom to that massive five-year, $185 million contract back in the offseason preceding 2023, this is the version of the former two-time Cy Young winner that they thought they were getting. Six innings, one run, four strikeouts, three walks. Extraordinary stuff from an ace who’s now pitching like his old self.

He was helped by an offensive effort that was nothing short of fantastic. Josh Smith, who’d been struggling for the better part of a month now, recorded three hits and knocked in four runs to lead the charge. Jake Burger, Jonah Heim, Langford, and Haggerty drove in the other four runs to round out the day.

Two great days at the office for the offense in one weekend. Who would’ve thought that that was even possible?

Can they keep it up? That’s been the question that’s been posed several times throughout 2025 when the team has suddenly put up buckets of runs. In the past, the lineup has fizzled out. Perhaps that won’t be the case this time?

Who knows? If we’re to rely on history, then by the time I write the next Rangers Roundup, the team will be back in the dumps, and we’ll be crying out for help once more. But maybe not. Maybe, just maybe, they’ve fixed what I called last week a broken lineup.

The Rangers are 29-31 and sit four games back of first place in the American League West. All things considered, it could be a lot worse. The Seattle Mariners, who’ve been in first place in the West for the majority of the season, have cooled off in recent weeks, allowing the Houston Astros to catch up and the Rangers to stay in the hunt despite consistently losing.

For now, the hopes of a postseason berth lie solely in winning the division. If the Rangers are hoping for a Wild Card spot, they’d seriously have to improve their record to compete with teams like Cleveland, Houston, and Minnesota that currently occupy the three at-large spots. Of course, that’s so far away in the future that it’s somewhat ludicrous to even be throwing out postseason possibilities.

We’re getting close to the time when it does become a suitable conversation to have, however, as the trade deadline is next month. Decisions to buy or sell at that deadline will have to be made in the coming weeks, and it’s the results on the field that are going to dictate what the Rangers decide to do at the deadline with the assets they currently have.

Jamey Newberg wrote a terrific piece a couple of days ago outlining some potential trade possibilities for the Rangers if they were to decide to call it quits on 2025 and look forward to 2026. Check that out; it’s quite good.

If the deadline were today, I believe that the Rangers should sell. Chris Young and the front office attempted to make the team better at the margins last year, and that proved to be a futile effort. I think that doing something similar this season would yield similar results. As such, going all in and selling pieces like Tyler Mahle, who’s never going to have higher value than he does right now, or finding a new home for a player like Adolis García, could be attractive options down the line. I certainly hope not. My main wish is that this version of the team magically figures it out. Unfortunately, magic isn’t real, unless you live in Orlando.

A couple of big-ticket roster moves and miscellaneous items to close it out:

• Nathan Eovaldi, who has a 1.56 ERA and is a Cy Young candidate, was removed from his start last Tuesday against the Toronto Blue Jays with what was called “triceps tightness.” After it was initially reported that he was taken out for purely precautionary purposes and that he was expected to make his next start, Eovaldi was placed on the 15-day IL the other day. There hasn’t been any other news regarding the seriousness of the injury, but if the initial word out of the clubhouse is to be believed, then he shouldn’t be missing too much time. Hopefully.

• In Eovaldi’s stead, Kumar Rocker will be coming off the injured list and will be replacing “Big Game Nate” in the rotation for the time being. Rocker is coming off two phenomenal rehab starts at Double-A Frisco and Triple-A Round Rock; he threw seven innings of two-hit baseball where he didn’t allow a run. If that’s the Rocker who’s going to be returning to the pitching fold, watch out, everybody.

• Texas called up Cody Heuer as the he corresponding move after Eovlaid was put on the injured list. Heuer last pitched in the big leagues in 2021 with both the White Sox and Cubs where he had a 4.28 ERA over 67 1/3 innings. At Triple-A Round Rock this season, he has a 3.68 ERA over 22 innings that have been spread out across 19 relief appearances.

• Evan Carter should be ready to come off the IL any day now after suffering that strained quad a couple of weeks ago. Bruce Bochy said several days ago that he did some sprints around the field and looked and felt great.

The introduction of Alejandro Osuna to this lineup has been nothing but an excellent success. Osuna, while not the flashiest hitter in the world, has given the Rangers some much-needed good at-bats. In a lineup that’s severely lacking skills like situational hitting and patience, Osuna has shone through like a bright ray of wonderful sunshine.

Up Next

A three-game set against the Tampa Bay Rays in the friendly minor league confines of George Steinbrenner Field. It’s going to be hot, hot, hot.

Here are the probable pitchers for a crucial series for both the Rangers and Rays:

Tuesday: (TEX) Tyler Mahle (5-2, 1.64 ERA) vs. (TB) Drew Rasmussen (4-4, 2.33 ERA)

Wednesday: (TEX) TBD vs. (TB) Shane Baz (4-3, 4.92 ERA)

Thursday: (TEX) TBD vs. (TB) Ryan Pepiot (3-5, 3.21 ERA)

I’d imagine that Rocker slots in on either Wednesday or Thursday. Leiter will probably be the other arm that goes in Tampa for Texas.

It should be a fun week of baseball. Or maybe not. I don’t know. The Rangers are an unpredictable bunch, that’s for sure.

You can only listen to “Don’t Stop Believin’” — or any song, for that matter — so many times in a short period before it starts to get old. I know the title of that song is giving me the blueprint to sports fandom, but it’s getting really, really hard to do that with the Texas Rangers.

There isn’t much more to say about the current state of the Rangers. The offense is putrid, while the pitching staff, particularly the starting rotation, has uplifted the team to the mediocre record it currently possesses. That’s the complete story. And it sucks.

Texas lost its third consecutive series last night after falling 2-0 to the Toronto Blue Jays. They’ve lost eight of their last ten games — their only two wins came against the lowly Chicago White Sox and the middling Toronto Blue Jays — and are now 27-30 and 4½ games behind the AL West-leading Seattle Mariners. Over that 10-game stretch, the Rangers were held to five or fewer runs in every single contest. While the storybook isn’t completely closed, it’s hard to imagine things turning around to such an extent that the Rangers find themselves chasing a ring by the time this season is all said and done.

So, with the 2025 Rangers looking to be set in stone, questions now arise about what next steps can be taken to ensure that 1) this team changes course and becomes good enough to make a postseason push, or 2) that Texas is set up well for the future.

It’s the first question that I’ll attempt to answer today, with the second question being answered in another Rangers Roundup sometime down the line, should this problem of a season continue down the horrific course it’s currently on.

There’s no question that what the Rangers are doing right now is not good enough. Chris Young and Bruce Bochy would certainly tell you that this was not the vision they had when constructing this roster over the offseason. In fact, it’s the complete polar opposite of where everybody thought they’d be.

Before the start of the season, countless media outlets poured out their praise for what the Rangers did in the offseason and posited how it was bound to pay dividends via a return to the postseason. What those projections were counting on, of course, was that the players on the roster would play up to their pay grade, and that obviously hasn’t happened.

Let’s just go down the list. Marcus Semien, the $175 million man who was brought to Texas to help the franchise win a World Series for the first time in its history — which he successfully achieved in 2023 — is currently slashing .173/.260/.224 (.484 OPS) and has an OPS+ of 45, all career lows. He’s slowly been dropped in the lineup, as he started off hitting leadoff, only to be slid down to fifth in the order about 20 or so games into the year. After that didn’t work out, he’s been shuffled around in the bottom of the lineup, mostly in the nine hole.

His fall off, from one of the best players on the roster to now being so unreliable at the plate that he might be giving Bochy no other choice but so sit him, is unbelievable. I have no words. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, however, does. Here’s what he had to say about Semien’s last month of play, and the history that he’s making in the process:

“In May, which coincides with the change in hitting coaches, Semien is hitting .163 with a .464 OPS. He has one extra-base hit for the month and one double for the season. His .484 OPS for the season makes it one of the worst starts by any MLB regular in the last decade. Since 2016, only three other players have had 200 or more plate appearances by the end of May and an OPS below .490. For context, the former Ranger Chris Davis, whose rapid decline in 2018 was legendary, was at .483 at the end of May.”

Just brutal.

Adolis García, the hero of the 2023 postseason for the Rangers, where he hit eight home runs and drove in a record-breaking 22 runs, has regressed so much in the past two years that conversations about moving him down to Triple-A or even cutting him have been circulating for several weeks. I don’t believe that a move that drastic is going to be made in the immediate future, but García’s poor play has been a major bummer. If not for his amazing defense in right field, which might be the best it’s ever been, he might not even be sniffing the lineup at all.

García had always been an overzealous swinger at the plate, but was still a successful hitter because when he squared up a baseball, man did he square it up. That’s not been the case this season, and he’s made it worse by chasing at such an extreme rate. According to Baseball Savant, García’s 2025 chase rate is an abysmal 40.7%, up from 33.6% a season ago. In 2023, his most successful season in the big leagues, that number was at 29.3%, which was a career low.

Grant had this to say about the two players and their future prospects in the lineup:

“The Rangers have done everything they can to facilitate that and help the veteran duo get started. They’ve had the luxury of giving them extra time since there has been a shortage of position players. But even that ‘luxury’ may be evaporating.”

Meanwhile, the new acquisitions of Joc Pederson and Jake Burger have been massive disappointments in their first year in Arlington. Pederson, in particular, came out of the gates so slowly with his 0-for-41 (perhaps in honor of Dirk Nowitzki?) slump that he was immediately out of the good graces of the fans. He’s since turned it around slightly, but a fractured hand from a hit-by-pitch several days ago put his season on hold for the time being.

I won’t go down the entire lineup and dog on everybody and their lackluster performances, but just know that it’s not great. One glance at the statistics for the Rangers’ hitters, and you’d get a good understanding that this offense is playing far below its potential. And that’s really a shame, because the vision for this team was to hit, hit, and hit, while the pitching did just enough to keep other teams at bay. That’s what worked out so well in 2023, and there was no reason for Young and the rest of the front office and coaching staff to doubt that it could work again.

But with it not going as planned, questions now persist about how to fix it. Are there trades that could be made to bolster the lineup and get everything on track? Is there anybody in the farm system who could come up to the big league club and ignite a spark, similar to what Evan Carter did for the 2023 team when he arrived in Arlington late that season? What about the coaching staff? Are there any more moves to be made in that department that would shake things up enough to get the team moving in the right direction?

The short answer: no.

In my opinion, and it pains me to say this, there is nothing that can be done to fix this team in the short term. No trade, no free agent signing, no minor league call-up, and no change to the coaching staff would be enough to rattle the cage enough to make the 2025 Texas Rangers a winning baseball team. It just is what it is.

That doesn’t mean that the front office isn’t going to attempt to make everything work. If I know Chris Young, he’ll fight tooth and nail to get the Rangers on the correct path. I commend him so much for what he was able to do to bring the franchise its first championship, and it’s that competitive spirit that makes him a fantastic person to be at the helm of a baseball team. But I think that no matter what he does, it won’t be enough. This team is beyond repair. They are broken.

That’s the phrase that I’ve seen thrown around most by media members and fans throughout the first two months of the season: the Rangers are broken. Night in and night out, we sit and watch as the pitching staff throws a gem, only for the offense to not back them up as the team goes on to lose. It’s the most discouraging form of the sport, and it’s probably making some fans of the team lose interest, or at least lose their minds.

Sometimes broken things can be repaired. If you have a toilet that’s not operating properly, you call a plumber. If the lights won’t come on in your house, you call an electrician (or just change the light bulbs). But if you have a broken baseball team, who do you call? Your local congressman? Your grandma? Your old roommate from college whom you haven’t spoken to in 20 years and honestly don’t ever wish to speak to again? None of the above. The true answer is that there is nobody to call, and there is no way for the problem to be corrected. We can do all the whining and complaining we want, but it’ll do nothing. The only thing to do is sit and wait, and hope that maybe, just maybe, it fixes itself. Unfortunately, it probably won’t.

I’m sure there’s a life lesson in the Texas Rangers’ struggles, but I can’t find it right now. At the moment, it’s just absolutely terrible and not fun.

The Rangers have lost six games in a row, including two to the Chicago White Sox, who are in the conversation for the worst team in the majors. With the way the Rangers are playing at the moment, they might find themselves in that conversation sooner rather than later.

To be honest, I’ve been having trouble finding the right words to describe the monstrosity that is Rangers baseball in 2025. So, in lieu of my plight, I’ve enlisted a thesaurus to help me out. Here are some other words and phrases that paint a picture of just how awful baseball in Arlington is right now:

• Appalling

• Atrocious (ain’t that the truth)

• Depressing

• Dire (that’s ominous)

• Disgusting (ouch)

• Distressing

• Dreadful

• Ghastly

• Gruesome (it’s like watching a crime scene night after night)

• Harrowing

• Hideous (that’s mean, thesaurus)

• Horrendous

• Horrible

• Horrific

• Horrifying

• Nasty (that’s what yesterday’s game against the White Sox was)

• Shocking

It’s that last word that sums it all up. These first 50 or so games for the Rangers have been shocking, and not in a good way.

I don’t want to start everybody’s Sunday with just some unpleasant sports business, so I’ll leave that for a much larger piece that I’m working on about the Rangers’ unpleasant state that’ll go up sometime later this week. There’s a lot to unpack, especially after this past week. It’s safe to say that we’ve learned a lot about the present and the future of the franchise over the last two months.

Sigh. Take me back to 2023, when the Rangers were shockingly awesome and all our troubles were far away.

The Rangers won 6–1 against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, marking a potential turning point for their season.

After a less-than-stellar week that featured two series losses to division rivals, the front office put its foot down. Jake Burger was sent down to Triple-A. Donnie Ecker, the team’s offensive coordinator and leader of the lineup, was let go. Leody Taveras was placed on outright waivers. Bret Boone was hired as the new hitting coach. Change was here, and if the early returns on Tuesday were to be believed, then everything was back on the right track.

Then Wednesday and Thursday’s games happened.

A 6–4 defeat on Wednesday was not the end of the world, but it was one that the Rangers probably felt they could’ve had, as they led 3–2 after five and a half innings. The bullpen then collapsed, and a questionable decision by manager Bruce Bochy to not intentionally walk Alex Bregman came back to bite them. Oh well. Stuff like that happens in a long baseball season.

Thursday, however, was a completely different story. Jack Leiter was not at his best, but he pitched into the sixth inning and allowed just three runs. Getting an outing like that from a rookie pitcher is everything the Rangers could’ve asked for, and it was up to the offense to pick him up and deliver a win. If only.

When Leiter exited the game, Texas was down 3–0. Boston went on to score two more runs, but it wouldn’t have mattered how many more they put on the scoreboard because the Rangers failed to bring anyone home. It was a 5–0 loss and another series defeat—the team’s sixth in a row.

The most glaring statistic that explains the two losses in Boston is this: on Wednesday and Thursday, the Rangers went a combined 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position.

There need not be any further explanation as to why those defeats occurred.

Through 38 games, the Rangers are slashing .239/.292/.361 (.653 OPS) with runners in scoring position. That batting average of .239 ranks 19th in the league, but the on-base percentage of .292 ranks 27th. The .361 slugging percentage also ranks in the bottom half of the league at 23rd. Rough.

This offense is built to put ducks on the pond and then drive them in with big hits. As the numbers I just mentioned illustrate perfectly, that isn’t happening right now for whatever reason. Here’s another glaring statistic: with runners on base—not just in scoring position, but simply on base—the Rangers have hit eight home runs. Just eight. Only the San Diego Padres and Kansas City Royals, who are 23–13 and 23–16, respectively, have hit fewer. Baseball is weird, folks.

Bret Boone and this coaching staff have their work cut out for them to get this offense out of the funk it currently finds itself in. The sheer lack of production from the lineup has brought a team that started 8–2 to now being a dismal 18–20.

What’s strange is that the offensive numbers are getting better, particularly at the individual level for those who were massively struggling in the early part of the campaign. Joc Pederson, for example, appears to have turned it around. He’s hitting the ball hard around the yard—he picked up four hits over this series, all hit 100+ MPH—and he walked three times on Thursday. Corey Seager’s early struggles are long gone, as he’s consistently squaring up baseballs and putting the team in prime run-scoring opportunities. Josh Smith has also been fantastic, and Wyatt Langford is still blossoming into a terrific young player. And hey, Evan Carter is back in the big leagues, and he looks healthy!

Unfortunately, four-to-five players aren’t enough to make an offense, and for most of the season the Rangers have had far fewer than that number of productive contributors to the run-scoring operation. Perhaps there will come a time when everybody is firing on all cylinders. Boone was brought on board to try and help figure out how to crack that code. Whether he’s actually able to do that is another question entirely.

0-for-17 is simply not good enough. No sir, indeed.

These Rangers Roundups have become increasingly more depressing as the season has progressed. Hopefully, that turns around soon, but in the meantime, I thought it’d be nice to try to inject some happiness and joy into everyone’s Rangers fandom by looking back on greener pastures.

So, for as long as the Rangers find themselves in the dumps, let’s look back at what was going on with the team in 2023—the year the franchise became a champion for the first time.

On May 8, 2023, the Rangers were 20–13 and were facing the Seattle Mariners in the first of three games up in the Pacific Northwest. As I’ve chronicled here this season, the Rangers do not play well in Seattle. Fortunately for the 2023 iteration of the team, that didn’t appear to be the case on May 8.

Jon Gray pitched a fantastic game, going seven innings and allowing just one run on four hits. He struck out eight and walked none. The only tally that scored on him was a solo home run he surrendered in the bottom of the first to Ty France.

From the first inning until the seventh, no team could get anyone home. Logan Gilbert was on the hill for the Mariners, and he was, as usual, amazing. But on that night, there was something special brewing in whatever potion he drank before the game because through six innings, he was perfect. 18 up, 18 down.

Until the seventh inning.

Marcus Semien led off the inning with a single to left field to break up Gilbert’s bid at history. Robbie Grossman (remember him?) struck out looking (typical), bringing Nathaniel Lowe (I miss him) to the plate. Lowe laced a single to center field at 106.3 MPH, putting two on with one out for Adolis García. While the 2025 version of García swings erratically at pitches outside the zone, the 2023 iteration—at least in the early going—was much more balanced and patient. He drew a walk to load the bases for Josh Jung.

Jung did what Rangers hitters in 2025 have rarely done: supply the team with a productive out. He lifted a fly ball to right field, which was deep enough to score Semien from third and tie the game.

Jonah Heim followed with something even better: a single to center field to bring Lowe home. The Rangers had a 2–1 lead, and they wouldn’t relinquish it.

Gray completed the seventh inning and then passed the baton to Jonathan Hernández (whoa, that’s a throwback name), who subsequently hit two batters before being lifted for Brock Burke (man, that 2023 Rangers bullpen was not good) with two outs. Fortunately, Burke struck out Jarred Kelenic to end the threat.

In the bottom of the ninth, Will Smith came in to try to shut it down and earn his sixth save of the season.

Side note: I still can’t believe that Will Smith was the team’s closer for the first half of that season. How in the world did the Rangers win a World Series with that bullpen? Oh well, doesn’t matter now!

Smith was dominant, striking out the side in order—all swinging—to give Texas its 21st win of the season.

Those were some good times. That team was just special, and it didn’t matter who they threw out there—especially early in the season. They were just going to win no matter what. Maybe it was that Bruce Bochy magic showing out in full force. Hopefully, that comes back soon.

Welcome back to the Rangers Roundup, where the mood has worsened slightly with each edition.

Don’t fret! It’s not your fault, wonderful reader. The blame lies squarely with the transgressions of the baseball team that this great newsletter is about.

It’s been a tough last two and a half weeks in Rangers World, with the squad losing its last four series in quite demoralizing fashion. The latest, a series loss to the Athletics at home, featured a lone 15–2 win in which the Rangers looked unstoppable, bookended by three debilitating losses where Texas managed to score a combined two runs.

Today, we’ll cover a variety of topics. As evidenced by the title, the first major change has arrived, and we’ll dive into what it is and what it entails. There’s also a lot to talk about regarding the pitching staff, which has been so dominant through the first month of the season. Finally, we’ll briefly look ahead to the team’s upcoming series against the Mariners. Spoiler alert: it’s a big one!

Change is Here

“Hello and welcome to McDonald’s. What can I get for you today?”

“Hi, yes, I’d like to order one offense, please?”

Through 32 games in 2025, the Texas Rangers are 16–16. Let’s agree to call that first month a wash, shall we?

Seriously, though, being at .500 after a month of play, considering that the Rangers are running out a lineup that frequently produces almost zero offense, is quite impressive. There are many scenarios where the Rangers would be much closer to the bottom of the league standings rather than sitting smack dab in the middle.

Of course, there’s also a dream scenario where Texas has a competent offensive unit to pair with a pitching staff that has vastly outperformed expectations. In that version of reality, the Rangers likely find themselves near the top of the standings. Alas, that’s not where we are, and as such, the team is reaping the consequences of its offensive ineptitude.

We’ve discussed at length why this team is struggling to score runs. The walk rate is abysmal, the power is lacking (the Rangers haven’t hit a home run since Thursday, by the way), and the team’s chase rate is among the worst in baseball. There are other factors too, none larger than the fact that the team hasn’t been fully healthy for more than what feels like a day at a time. Josh Jung missed a week with a neck sprain, followed by Wyatt Langford landing on the IL for a stretch. As soon as he returned, Corey Seager went down with a right hamstring strain.

Of course, those aren’t excuses. Even without those players, this team should be scoring more than one or two runs a game.

So, what’s the solution? Is it patience? Is it panic? Well, with the news breaking yesterday evening that the Rangers are planning to send Jake Burger, the team’s struggling first baseman, currently slashing a measly .190/.231/.330 (.561 OPS), to Triple-A Round Rock for a “reset,” the answer is clear: it’s somewhere in the middle.

By sending Burger down and calling up Blaine Crim to make his MLB debut and take Burger’s spot, the Rangers are banking on a few things. First, they haven’t lost hope in Burger’s ability to contribute to this roster. While the results haven’t been there, the underlying process appears to be consistent with past seasons. A week or two in Round Rock should provide Burger with a lower-pressure environment to reset mentally and return to being the player the coaching staff and front office believe he can be.

Still, Chris Young has repeatedly said that this is a results-driven business, and Burger’s current performance doesn’t cut it. While his demotion came as a bit of a shock, Crim’s call-up was not. Crim has been a consistent performer in the minors, boasting a .296/.372/.507 (.879 OPS) slash line over his MiLB career. He’s started this season strong, slashing .313/.365/.565 (.930 OPS) with seven home runs and 25 RBIs through 28 games in Triple-A. His promotion is well deserved, and I’m excited to see how he performs in the majors.

Burger’s demotion and Crim’s promotion aren’t a cure-all, and I think Young knows that. This is just the first of potentially several moves to jumpstart the offense. Evan Carter’s return to Arlington could also be on the horizon. The young left-handed outfielder has finally found some consistency at the plate down in Triple-A. Due to lingering back issues, the Rangers had been cautious with his usage, avoiding back-to-back games throughout the first month of the season. But recently, he’s played in six of the last seven games and performed well.

He also got his first hit off a left-handed pitcher this season a couple of days ago—so that’s progress!

Back in 2023, Carter’s call-up essentially saved the Rangers’ season. I’m not exaggerating — players on that team called him their “little savior.” While I don’t believe his return this time around will have quite the same seismic effect as it did during the championship run, I do believe a fully healthy and locked-in Carter would be a major boost to the lineup. At his best, he’s a fantastic hitter and a strong defender. Let’s just hope he stays on his current trajectory so he can be back in Arlington soon.

What will this lineup look like with Crim — and potentially Carter — added, along with a healthy Seager? I’m not completely sure. My guess is that Carter would bat lower in the order — maybe even in the 9-hole — as a sort of second leadoff hitter. If Crim makes an immediate impact, I could see him batting near the top to inject some power into the lineup. And Seager, of course, will hit second or third and remain the team’s best hitter without question.

Regardless of who’s in the lineup or where they’re hitting, the goal remains the same: score runs.

Pitching Excellence

There’s not much more to say, but it bears repeating: the Rangers’ starting pitching has been outstanding in 2025. Just take a look at the past week and change:

• April 24 – Jacob deGrom: 5 1/3 IP, 6 H, 2 ER

• April 25 – Nathan Eovaldi: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 ER

• April 26 – Tyler Mahle: 5 IP, 8 H, 2 ER

• April 27 – Jack Leiter: 3 1/3 IP, 2 H, 2 ER

• April 28 – Patrick Corbin: 4 2/3 IP, 7 H, 2 ER

• April 29 – Jacob deGrom: 6 IP, 4 H, 0 ER

• April 30 – Nathan Eovaldi: 6 IP, 6 H, 1 ER

• May 1 – Tyler Mahle: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER

Every starter over the past eight days has allowed two or fewer earned runs. Four of those starts went six innings. The combined ERA for the starters over that stretch is 2.13. Fantastic numbers all around. But what’s not fantastic? The team’s record in those games: 2–6. Ouch.

The pitching staff deserves better. It’s got to be frustrating to deliver quality start after quality start and still come up short on the scoreboard. As always, it circles back to the offense — and that’s a shame.

On a brighter note, Tyler Mahle was named the Rangers' Player of the Month for March/April. He’s posted a stellar 1.19 ERA over 37 2/3 innings so far this season. It’s one of the best season starts by a Rangers pitcher in recent memory. Props to Mahle! Now, if only he could get a few more wins to go along with it.

Up Next

The division-leading Seattle Mariners arrive in Arlington tonight for a critical series. As of 1:40 PM CDT on Friday, here’s how the AL West standings look:

1. Seattle Mariners

2. Houston Astros

3. Oakland Athletics

4. Texas Rangers

5. Los Angeles Angels

The Rangers were in first place just a week ago. Wild.

After dropping four straight series, the Rangers must come away with some big wins against the Mariners. Unfortunately, Seattle boasts a stellar pitching staff and an offense that’s come alive over the past two weeks. It won’t be easy, but it has to be done. Victory at all costs, as they say.

Here are the projected pitching matchups for this weekend’s series:

• Friday: (TEX) Jack Leiter (2–0, 2.03 ERA) vs. (SEA) Bryan Woo (3–1, 3.09 ERA)

• Saturday: (TEX) Patrick Corbin (2–1, 3.79 ERA) vs. (SEA) Luis Castillo (3–2, 3.62 ERA)

• Sunday: (TEX) Jacob deGrom (1–1, 2.73 ERA) vs. (SEA) Logan Evans (1–0, 3.60 ERA)

I said it Monday, and I’ll say it again: Let’s go win a series, dang it.