5 Things the Rangers Must Do to Return to Contention in 2025

This time last year, the Texas Rangers had just claimed the franchise’s first World Series title. Flash forward 12 months and the team is starting the official offseason, with a 2025 trip to the playoffs in sight.

Despite having a frustrating 2024 season, the Rangers have a solid core to push the team back into the postseason. With Bruce Bochy writing Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Josh Jung, and Wyatt Langford’s names into the lineup each night, there is plenty to be excited about in Arlington.

Plus, handing the ball to a healthy Jacob deGrom every fifth day sure doesn’t hurt either. While the rest of the pitching staff isn’t as top shelf (yet!), there are several other arms that will help the cause.

But as the Rangers found out this past year, it takes putting games into the win column consistently throughout the season to reach the teams goals. Name recognition is great and puts fans in the seats, but winning is what the Rangers need in order to fight in October. This season’s early vacation time is sure to help motivate the team to make sure that they are squarely in the mix come the end of next September.

1. Score More Runs

News flash: the Texas Rangers had a problem scoring runs in 2024. It seemed like every other week Aram, Peter, and Jack were scratching their heads on the Just Baseball Show as to what was going on in Arlington. Just waiting for the lid to come off and the offense to pour out vast amounts of runs on unsuspecting opponents.

Virtually the same lineup went from scoring 881 runs (5.44 runs per game) to 683 runs this year (4.22 runs per game). The pitching staff only gave up 22 more runs in 2024 compared to 2023. With the lack of run production, the team won only 78 games compared to 90 the year prior.

So, what was the root cause of the lack of runs? There were some key players that had down years, that is a fact. Marcus Semien, Adolis Garcia, Jonah Heim, and Leody Taveras all struggled at the plate in 2024. Semien’s struggles were not terrible but were a far cry from his third-place finish in MVP voting in 2023.

Rangers Slug Way Off in 2024

There has been much discussion about why and how the Rangers offense was lackluster in 2023. The struggles with the fastball were one. But perhaps the biggest issue that needs to be addressed is the sharp decline in slug from one year to the next. And it wasn’t just the lack of home runs (176 ’24 vs 233 ’23) although they took a significant dip.

Doubles can help spark an offense in a mighty way. Only the Green Monster peppering Boston Red Sox had more doubles in MLB than the Rangers in 2023. Boston hit 339 while the Rangers were right on their heels with 326.

Fast forward to 2024 and the doubles completely disappeared for Texas. The Rangers managed only 220 doubles and finished dead last in the category. Even the 121-loss White Sox that only scored 507 runs all season had more doubles than the Rangers. To get back to the playoffs the Rangers will have to find their pop at the plate.

2. Get Creative this Offseason

If the Rangers were going to make a wish list of players that they wanted to add this offseason it would look something like this. One and possibly two mid to top of the rotation starting pitchers, a revamped bullpen with plenty of proven arms, and a power bat to plug into the middle of the lineup would be the order of the day.

MLB team construction isn’t easy, but it sure makes it easier when there are blank checks laying around the front office and spending isn’t an issue. Unfortunately for newly promoted GM Ross Fenstermaker, President of Baseball Ops Chris Young, and the rest of the Rangers front office, those blank checks are currently sitting in the vault.

After exceeding the Luxury Tax threshold two years in a row, there is a known goal to get under that number for 2025. With several players coming off of the books due to free agency following this past season, that doesn’t seem like a hard task. The difficult part is going to be adding some quality pieces to go along with the main core and still maintaining the desired salary level.

Perhaps the Rangers will look to trade a piece or two that is arbitration eligible and moving up the pay scale. Or they might even look to move one of the higher priced veterans that is signed long-term like Semien or even deGrom. That would be a more difficult task but there are less and less sacred cows when it comes to this roster heading into 2025 than there were after the World Series title.

3. Let the Youngsters Eat

For 2025 to be a successful year, the Rangers are going to have to lean heavily on some of the organizations home grown talent. The World Series run of 2023 saw Evan Carter take the biggest of stages and flourish. But a back injury kept the young superstar on the IL for most of this past year. His full recovery this offseason and availability next season will have a big impact on how the Rangers can construct their team.

And while Langford isn’t going to be winning the AL Rookie of the Year next week like many of us thought that he would, he did have a solid season. With less than a year spent in the Minor Leagues, before being thrust into the middle of the Rangers lineup, Langford showed plenty of signs that he is the real deal.

After struggling early on in the season, Langford settled into his own and started playing great baseball. In fact, he would end up being the AL Player and Rookie of the Month in September when he posted a slash line of .300/.386/.610 and belted 8 home runs. According to the Texas Rangers communications department, it was the first time that a Rangers player had won AL Player of the Month since Shin-Soo Choo took the honor in September of 2015.

Leiter and Rocker to Have Impact

Carter and Langford will have a huge impact on the club from the offensive and defensive side of things. But it is the young Vandy Boys, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker, that stand to help shove the Rangers back to the postseason from the mound.

Leiter had a few rough starts early but was given zero grace period and time to get settled into the big-league club house and routine. Instead of having his season spiral out of control he spent his time back in Triple-A with Round Rock absolutely dominating the rank Pacific Coast League. Highlighted by his 11-strikeout outing on August 15th, Leiter reigned in the command and seemed to even grab another gear with the fastball that consistently was upper 90’s and hitting triple digits at times.

Pair that with Rocker coming back from Tommy John surgery and being healthy for the first time in a long time, and the Rangers have two home grown arms that can make a massive difference on their 2025 playoff hopes. Both Leiter and Rocker were brought up to Arlington to finish off the season this year which could pay huge dividends going into Spring Training and ultimately Opening Day.

Both of those guys belong in the big leagues. They are young and could struggle at times, but unless there are command issues or something that needs to be lined out, Rocker and Leiter both need to be in Arlington early and often next season to give the Rangers the best chance at contending again.

4. Pitching, Pitching, and More Pitching

We just talked about the youngsters Rocker and Leiter, but what about the rest of the arms that the Rangers are going to need to amass? It just so happens that one Jacob deGrom will be the Opening Day ace and that is huge. The Rangers bet big on deGrom and haven’t been able to enjoy his dominance over the first two seasons because of injury. He appeared to be strong and healthy in his late season return from Tommy John and looks to anchor the rotation in 2025.

Outside of deGrom, Rocker, and Leiter the Rangers still have a nice set of starters that are under contract. Tyler Mahle, Jon Gray, Cody Bradford, and Dane Dunning will all be coming back and will add depth and flexibility to the pitching staff. Don’t be surprised if the Rangers trade one or two of these guys in order to upgrade to more of a top to middle of rotation guy.

Young’s mantra is that a team can never have enough pitching. They will need to upgrade their rotation either by trade or by signing a free agent. The problem is going to be how much money he will have to work with. All parties involved would love to bring Nathan Eovaldi and even Andrew Heaney back for the 2025 campaign. What remains to be seen is if there is enough wiggle room with the numbers to make moves like that happen.

Possible Jordan Montgomery Reunion

Reuniting with Jordan Montgomery isn’t out of the question. After exercising his $22.5M player option with Arizona, both parties will be hoping to move on from each other. The Diamondbacks will most likely be willing to eat a portion of Montgomery’s salary in order to turn the page so maybe the Rangers will be able to run it back with one of their 2023 postseason heroes.

And let’s not forget the bullpen that will need to be mostly remade for 2025. The Rangers hit with their offseason adds of Kirby Yates and David Robertson last year and will need to do something similar again. Bullpens are an ever changing, fluid group, and the Rangers will be turning over every stone that they can find to make sure that they can keep a stable of quality arms.

5. Keep Josh Jung (and Everyone Else) Healthy

There isn’t a team in the league that doesn’t want or need to stay healthy in 2025. Shoot, the Dodgers had some of the worst injuries this past season and are World Series champs. Even in 2023, the Rangers didn’t exactly miss the injury bug either, and that turned out just fine too.

But Texas really does need to minimize the injury damage in 2025 in order to make a run for the postseason. The club’s organizational depth is weak. There aren’t just a ton of guys going to be sitting around in the minors that will be able to fill in for an extended time period and produce.

All of the main starters are important, pitching health is vitally important, but the guy that needs to stay healthy the most, is Josh Jung. The All-Star third baseman only played in 46 games this past season and 122 in his rookie campaign of 2023.

When Jung is in the lineup and on the field the Rangers just seem to play at a higher level. He is a leader and while he is not the best player on the team, he can extend the lineup in a way that makes everyone better. In 2023 including the playoffs when Jung played the Rangers were 86-53 (.619 winning %) and without him they went 17-23 (.425 winning %).

This past year Jung started out on fire his first four games before being hit by a pitch and breaking his wrist/forearm. He wouldn’t return to action until July 30th. Jung was cleared to play, but his arm wasn’t right, and he wasn’t his normal self as he would shut it back down a week before the season was over. Texas desperately needs Jung to have a full season in 2025.

Healthy deGrom a Must

Any Rangers injury section has to include a note on deGrom. It goes without saying that the club needs to have him at the front of the rotation more than just the six and three games that they have gotten out of him his first two years in Arlington.

It is unrealistic to expect deGrom to get back to his pre-2020, 31 to 32 starts and 200+ innings. But if he can take the mound 25 times and give the Rangers 150+ innings they will be a dangerous team. When he was healthy in 2023, even though he only started six games, the Rangers won all six of those contests. deGrom’s influence on the direction that the 2025 Texas Rangers go shouldn’t be overlooked.