The Current State of the Texas Rangers
Right now, the Texas Rangers are sitting at 17-20 in third place in the AL West and are two games back of the Athletics for first place.
Despite the record, they are very much in the hunt for the division.
However, there is a lot left to be desired from the team.
Thought #1) Jung and Duran Are the Offense
The offense is continuing to struggle, despite the chances the team made in players and the approach it took in the offseason. The Rangers have only two consistent hitters: Josh Jung and Ezequiel Duran.
Jung has looked like his 2023 self, great over April and keeping it up in May. His slash line is .315/.371/.875 with four homers and 19 RBIs. This comes after a very slow start, during which he went 0-for-17.
Jung could have spiraled, but he was able to use this as a reset and play better. It has been a surprise to see Duran playing so well this year, as he struggled mightily last year and was overshadowed by Josh Smith.
Now, Duran is the guy with the attention on him. His April was impressive, with a .300 batting average, and he has been even better in May, with a .350 batting average. He even hit his first home run of the year in the latest game against the Yankees.
These two have been great for the offense and are the guys that the fans should look forward to watching. Hopefully, the other guys can be more like them.
Thought #2) The Defense is Bad
The Texas Rangers won the Gold Glove as a team last year; this team has not lived up to those standards. It was expected to have some regression with the losses of Adolis Garcia and Marcus Semien, who are elite defenders.
While they have not committed too many errors as a team, they sit eighth-fewest in the league at 16. However, any Rangers fan who has watched the games knows that the defense has been an adventure every night.
There isn’t a single guy to point to as the weakest link, but the thing that has stood out to me the most is the number of infield pop-ups that have fallen. Most of them have come on the third base side, between Josh Jung and Corey Seager.
I’m not exactly sure what has made this such an issue, but if they can’t get the easy outs, I don’t know how they expect to get the tougher ones.
Thought #3) Need More From the Starters
Jacob deGrom has been his usual self, headlining the team as the ace. Nathan Eovaldi has had a rough go of it in the early season, but he has looked better recently, allowing one run over 15 innings in his last two starts.
Kumar Rocker has been fine as a fifth starter with a 4.71 ERA. He has had his ups and downs trying to figure out how to pitch in the MLB. I don’t have too much to say about him.
This is where the starters have fallen short. MacKenzie Gore has struggled to make it deep into games, failing more often than not to complete six innings. He has only done this one out of eight times in the season with a 5.18 ERA. That wasn’t what the Rangers thought they were getting when they traded for Gore.
Leiter has failed to build on his breakout year in 2025, when he posted a sub-four ERA over 150 innings. He has posted a 5.45 ERA through the season so far. He started the season well with two starts of one and two runs allowed. Then things have come off the rails for him since then, allowing 20 runs in the five starts since.
There is still a chance for him to get back on track with a lot of the season left.
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