What We Know About the Rangers After the First Two Series
The Texas Rangers are off to a great start to the 2025 season. There is much that can be learned about the team from the first two series.
The first two series of the Texas Rangers‘ 2025 regular season are in the books. The club won both and currently sits at 5-2. In true baseball fashion, it was a bit of a mixed bag of games.
Facing what is believed to be a potential playoff team in the Boston Red Sox at home for the first four games of the year was a daunting task. And then to drop the first game by giving up a three-run home run in the ninth sure put a damper on the excitement leading into the season.
Thank goodness, Opening Day is just another day in the standings.
But unlike most other sports, the team was able to play again the very next day and pick up their first win. Two more wins over the weekend sealed the opening series victory, 3-1.
After a blowout loss on Monday at the hands of Cincinnati, the Rangers decided to do something that they had never done before: win back-to-back 1 to 0 games! It’s kind of hard to believe that it was the first time the Rangers had accomplished the feat. But then again, I have been following the team for a long, long time, and it does track!
So, with all that said, what are some of the things that we learned about this Rangers team over their first two series?
This Rangers Team Is Gutsy
Winning by sheer domination is fun. Score a ton of runs early and often, and it leads to smiles in the dugout and lower blood pressure for the fanbase. So far this season, the Rangers haven’t been able to handle business in this fashion.
Instead, they have been scratching out wins with a few timely hits, solid pitching, and good defense. Outside of the blowout loss to the Reds in which the Rangers gave up 14 runs, Texas has held their opponent in check.
With the offense still not firing on all cylinders quite yet, the Rangers have already had a decent number of close games. Much has been made about the back-to-back 1 to 0 wins that the team had to finish out the trip to Cincinnati, and rightfully so.
In addition to those one-run wins, the team’s two previous wins were also of the one-run variety. With four of the team’s wins being decided by only one run, they are already showing that they have grit and can grind out a win.
I am a big run differential guy, but only over a large sample size. In small sample sizes, it is really more about the wins and losses. Despite having a -7 run differential and a 2-5 expected win-loss, the Rangers are 5-2.
The offense will come, and there will be many nights when the Rangers simply outslug their opponents. But the guts that they have shown thus far is not only putting wins in the win column, but it is proving to themselves, and everyone else in the league, that they will be a tough beat if they can get into the playoffs at season’s end.
Rangers Bullpen Can Be Good
The biggest question mark coming into the 2025 season for the Rangers was their bullpen. With the self-imposed spending limit, POBO Chris Young had to get creative and add quantity over top-end relief quality.
That’s not to say that the guys he added aren’t good. But there was no high-end, top-flight closer added, and that was really the biggest missing link in most people’s minds. Their concerns seemed to be confirmed on Opening Day.
Luke Jackson, who has been filling the closer role thus far, gave up a three-run bomb to Wilyer Abreu. The home run came in a tied game in the top of the ninth and was the difference in the game. Jackson had given up a hit and a walk before the homer, so it wasn’t like he was perfect.
But Abreu ended the day 3-for-3 with two home runs, a single, and a walk. The ball looked like a beach ball to the guy. The real issue for Jackson was more about letting the two guys get on so that he had to pitch to Abreu instead of throwing around him.
But outside of that ninth-inning issue on Opening Day, the bullpen has been solid.
They got completely run down by the end of the Red Sox series, as the Rangers’ starters still weren’t able to go extremely deep. Especially Tyler Mahle, who only went 1.2 innings. The ‘pen picked him up big time. Five guys combined to throw 7.1 innings of two-run ball. Not too shabby!
After the debacle of a game on Monday that Kumar Rocker started, the bullpen got the day off thanks to Nathan Eovaldi’s complete-game shutout on Tuesday night. After getting a breather, the bullpen was able to hold the Reds scoreless for the final four frames on Wednesday afternoon and secure another 1-0 victory.
With some of the starters having limited workloads, the Rangers’ bullpen is going to be pressed into more work at times than would be ideal. But with a solid core of guys for Bochy to call upon to go with several young pitchers with options, the overall management of the ‘pen will be more of an art form instead of a set, robotic structure.
Despite having to throw 27.1 innings thus far, the Rangers’ bullpen boasts a 3.29 ERA. It is a small sample size, but Bochy and Young both have to be pleased with what they have seen thus far.
Wyatt Langford Is Good at Baseball
Over the first week of the season, Wyatt Langford is doing his best to quiet any potential sophomore slump talks. He has been one of the few bright spots offensively for Texas.
Through the first seven games, he is slashing .269/.321/.500, has two home runs, and put up a 143 wRC+. Outside of Corey Seager, he is the guy that the Rangers want at the plate when the game is on the line.
Not only does Langford have two home runs, but they have been crucial ones. The first came on Sunday against Boston. After the Red Sox had taken a one-run lead in the top half of the sixth, Langford answered back, tying the game at two apiece with an opposite-field blast. Two batters later, Adolis García would hit one of his own that would prove to be the winner.
Then, on Tuesday night in Cincinnati, Langford connected with a first-inning Carson Spiers pitch and sent it over the wall. That was a great start to the game. But in reality, it was all that the Rangers would need in their 1-0 victory.
Hitting second or third in the Rangers’ lineup is going to give Langford plenty of opportunities to shine. He has already shown that he is up to the task in 2025.
Eovaldi, deGrom, and Leiter Could Be Fun in the Postseason
The biggest move that the Rangers made in the offseason wasn’t the trade for Jake Burger or the free-agent signing of Joc Pederson. No, it was the re-signing of Nathan Eovaldi. One of the great big-game pitchers of this era, Eovaldi brings both toughness and confidence to Texas.
After a solid start on Opening Day, he took his game to an elite level in his next outing. Knowing that the team needed to go deep to give the ‘pen a break, Eovaldi decided to just give them the night completely off. Spinning the rare complete-game shutout was so clutch.
I had been saying all spring that if the Rangers can get 20-to-25-plus starts out of both Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom, and they are healthy for the playoffs, that the Rangers will be a tough matchup for anyone come October.
While I stand by that statement wholeheartedly, Jack Leiter has now entered the equation as well. Eovaldi and deGrom are still the clear one-two punch in the rotation, but Leiter is quickly inserting himself into that three spot.
It’s only two starts, but Leiter has been dominant in both. Leiter now holds a 2-0 record across 10 innings, recording 10 strikeouts, only one walk, and a 0.90 ERA. Fans would ultimately love to see him be able to go an extra inning or two as we get deeper into the season, but this is quite a start for someone who many people were ready to give up on.
It’s still early, but the idea of deGrom, Eovaldi, and Leiter leading the rotation heading into a postseason series is exciting to daydream about.
Seven games in, the Rangers find themselves in first place in the AL West. Just 155 more, and perhaps they will remain on top of the mountain when summer turns to fall.
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West Jones is a baseball enthusiast who resides in Texas. He is a graduate of Tarleton State University (finance) and has his MBA from Ball State…