The Texas Rangers bolstered their roster at the trade deadline by acquiring three pitchers. Merrill Kelly was the Arizona Diamondbacks starter that won the lone game in the 2023 World Series. Danny Coulombe was the linchpin of the Baltimore Orioles bullpen when they won 101 games in 2023. Phil Maton is a solid right-handed reliever. They all became Texas Rangers after the Rangers returned from the All-Star Break looking like they had regained their prime 2023 form.
The bizarre horror show that unfolded in the wake of the Rangers intelligently adding at the deadline defined the season. The opening salvo of the suffering was a road series against wretched Anaheim. The Angels are a terminally broken joke franchise. They hold the record for the longest playoff drought in baseball. That was the 2014 team led by Ranger turncoats Josh Hamilton and Iron CJ Wilson. Hamilton was rightfully honored by the Rangers for his tremendous achievements. It was appropriate the ceremony was held amidst such a cavalcade of upheaval and dissonance mired in immeasurable baseball talent. The Angels were so bad they sent Ron Washington into an early retirement. Washington, who famously led the 2010 Rangers to their first pennant, was driven to physical ruin by the endemic rot of the Angels franchise. Washington’s Angels tenure can be summarized by an exchange he had in a meeting with his pitchers early in his tenure.
“Why are you not throwing first pitch strikes?” Washington demanded of his pitchers one by one.
Wash was surrounded by the dregs of the league, another terrible staff ranking near the bottom in walks and runs allowed.
That was what feels like an eternity ago and the Angels pitching never improved. The Angels main carry player, Mike Trout, has been depleted by injuries the last few seasons. The Rangers needed to sweep this series. What they got instead was a brutal series loss punctuated with Jon Gray receiving a career altering injury. Gray was laid to waste in his relief appearance in the wretched Angels series. Gray did not look like himself. An injury was revealed that had nothing to do with the broken wrist that caused him to miss the first two months of the season. He should have been back at his peak form by now. The brutal diagnosis of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome was given to Gray. This diagnosis is more feared than the blowing out of the arm, the UCL tear. Gray is probably done for good. At the peak of his powers he was a top 20 starter in the league that threw hard and had a nasty slider. He was always a pitcher that was excellent at peak powers, but was below average with any sort of injury. He pitched for weeks in a knee brace and was ineffective at one point in Texas. His inability to be effective at less than his best makes the diagnosis more damning.
The Rangers were carried by Nathan Eovaldi to a single, tepid victory against the clueless Angels. If the New York Mets “killed Gil Hodges,” as Mets fan and legendary radio host Don La Greca once quipped, then the Angels did their best to kill Ron Washington. Wash was smart enough to take a step away from the odious blackhole franchise before the stress ate away what was left of him. The Rangers had a chance to defend the honor of their most valiant and beloved skipper in team history. Instead they embarrassed themselves in the usual pathetic and disgraceful way they have done all season.
The Rangers flew up to Seattle after winning a mere game in Anaheim. This was one of those series that is basically a playoff series. The Mariners are the team between the Rangers and Astros in the AL West. They are one of the main teams contending for an AL Wild Card spot. They also bought at the deadline. The Mariners acquisitions popped off in this series. The Rangers reverted back into the whipped curr they usually become when playing up in Seattle.
The opening game of the series saw the Rangers shutout and taken out of the game completely. The Rangers have been shutout 15 times this season. They have been held to one run 17 times. These are staggeringly high totals that show apathy, selfishness, and poor coaching. The 2023 Rangers were defined by a relentless offensive approach. The hitters trusted each other and worked the count. The 2025 Rangers are a cadre of selfish “me” guys suffering from what Coach Pat Riley called “The Disease of More.” This affliction eats away at championship teams the years after the first title is achieved. Adolis Garcia predicting he would hit 50 homers then playing selfish all season is a great example of The Disease of More. That is something that actually happened this season, by the way.
Some guys like Josh Jung are trying too hard to stop the bleeding. He is being dismissed as selfish. He has been pressing at the plate. This is an act of a good teammate, not a selfish one. He has had a vexing career where he cannot stay healthy.
Marcus Semien is a lazy dope that did not show up ready to play this season. Evan Carter has been hurt off and on. Wyatt Langford has been decent, but not as prolific as he needed to be. The first base situation is an insane joke. A total blackhole. Jonah Heim is still being overworked at catcher. Seager is hitting .150 OPS points below where he should be. The team is a joke. Joc Pederson is becoming one of the most reviled Rangers ever. This is an offense so bad it wasted the best defense AND pitching in the league. Imagine the 2011 Rangers offense with those things…
One of the most galling things about this Rangers season is the uncompetitive, checked out nature of the position players. This is the most important season in team history and the position players are constantly playing for themselves and their numbers. Chris Young did a great job assembling this roster. This is not a talent issue. The offense is playing magnitudes beneath its peak rank. Bochy is a pitching focused coach. He has the pitchers humming. The other coaches, like dim Justin Viele and dope Bret Boone, should be fired immediately.
The Rangers tried and true strategy of scoring three runs or less, then checking out and expecting a bad bullpen to put up zeros was used again the following day. The new bullpen acquisitions stood tall. Roberto Garcia choked the game. This gut punch would prove to be truly devastating.
Merrill Kelly pitched well for the Rangers in the third game. Kyle Higashioka put up 3 RBI in this crucial win. The Rangers stooged away the final game of the series. Jacob deGrom looked human for the 3rd start in a row. The Rangers spent 30 years looking for a starting pitcher to merely look human. They failed decade after decade. Now they boast the best staff in baseball and cannot stay above .500. This team is insufferable. They hitters perform either apathetically or selfishly. Neither is conducive to runs. This has been far and away the most miserable season to cover. Somehow more boring and contemptible than the dregs of the 2017-2022 CLOWN ERA that were diligently cataloged on a weekly basis. Those teams were awful and had no pitching. It was more entertaining to see a really bad team win a few more games than they should due to Mike Minor and Lance Lynn popping off. It was fun to see Joey “Walk or Dong” Gallo showcase his ultimate gimmick style. The crushing, suffocating weight of expectations ate this 2025 team alive. The disjointed unit has looked shockingly bad for the last two years. So unexplainably bad that even if every player took simultaneous, unrelated downswings (absurd) it still would not be THIS bad.
A brilliant beam of light stridently blasted through the wretched storm clouds obscuring the talent of the 2025 Rangers. That beam of the light was the New York Yankees. The Yanks were on the heels of getting embarrassed by the Miami Marlins. The Bombers were swept by the lowly NL sewer team and their fans were furious. Yanks Skipper Aaron Boone was on the hot seat going into the Rangers series. The Rangers won the first game after the husk of Devin Williams choked the save in the 9th. Devin Williams was a top end reliever in Milwaukee, known for his changeup. He was crushed in the playoffs and the Yanks traded for him like it never happened. The emotional baggage mixed with pitching in NY broke Williams. He is like Steve Trout or Eddie Whitson. The lights of NY were too bright for him. Yankee fans HATE this guy!
Nathan Eovaldi turned in another hard carry 1v9 performance. The Yanks managed 2 hits despite Aaron Judge playing. Eovaldi went 8 scoreless. If the Rangers were not a laughingstock he would be the Cy Young favorite. Yankee fans were at such a boiling point another loss would have potentially gotten Aaron Boone canned. The Rangers choked this glorious opportunity. Adolis Garcia went 0-5. The Rangers have spent all season failing to close out sweeps and build momentum. They had a mere sniff of momentum after the All-Star Break. The Yankees win allowed Aaron Boone to keep his job. He is funny, so perhaps this is a good thing.
The Rangers proved they were not a playoff team with a comedy routine over the weekend. The Philadelphia Phillies crushed the listless Rangers. The Rangers posted run totals of 1, 2, and 2 runs all weekend. “Offensive coaches” Justin Viele and Bret Boone are two talentless hacks. They sold our beloved Rangers down the river with their pass the buck mentality.
The Rangers played the Diamondbacks next. Arizona is a team bleeding out that sold at the deadline. They pose no threat to a legit contender. The Rangers barely won the first game. They then proceeded to choke BOTH of the other games. Ketel Marte came up big in both games for Arizona. The Rangers then traveled up to Toronto and lost twice before winning the final game.
The grotesque ineptitude of the Rangers peaked against the listless Kansas City Royals. They dropped the opening two games of the series after posting 2 and 3 runs. They cobbled together a victory in the third game, but dropped the fourth. In a world where every game counts, the Rangers are accomplishing less and little.
Evan Carter just went down for the rest of the season with a back injury. Marcus Semien is dinged up. Jacob deGrom is finally starting to look less than perfect. Jake Burger is hurt again.
The Rangers managed to mangle their most important season ever.
