As the Astros keep winning, the Texas Rangers have to prove their title wasn’t a fluke

The Texas Rangers just ended their seventh losing season in the last eight years, while down Interstate 45 the Houston Astros won their seventh American League West title in the same time frame.

The Astros are again in the playoffs for the ninth time since 2015.

However sick their success makes you, you do not have much choice but to respect their run. However much weight you put on the Astros’ “technology” contributing to this decade of winning is an individual preference. They’re still here, and they are the problem the Rangers thought they had behind them.

While the Astros prepared to play Game 1 of the American League wild card series against the Detroit Tigers, Rangers general manager Chris Young and manager Bruce Bochy met with the media on Tuesday at Globe Life Mall to put the final note on the sequel to their World Series.

Just as the movie is never as good as the book, seldom is the follow up equal to the original. No one expected this sequel to be as good as the first, but this Rangers’ season played out like some “Paul Blart Mall Cop 5” flick that no one really wants to see.

One year ago the Rangers were finishing their regular season, heading towards a historic playoff run that only the almighty saw coming. Just as no one saw that coming, no one saw their 78-84 record in 2024 anywhere on the horizon.

With that World Series in the past the task for Young and Bochy is not necessarily do that again but to put themselves in a position to prove that 2023 was not a fluke, which starts by dethroning the Astros.

The team the Rangers defeated in Game 7 of the 2023 American League Championship series did not tumble down the A.L. West standings, as ignorantly predicted here. Falling to the bottom of the A.L. West requires explosives, thanks to the presence of the Angels and Athletics, who own the last spots in this division.

The Rangers, and several other teams, have demonstrated a division title is not needed to win a World Series, but you have no shot if you are this far behind, either. As is so often the case with World Series winners that fall flat the next season, the Rangers had the typical list of excuses to explain their drop under .500.

The GM gently called them out in mid August, and the play did improve. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but that spurt served as a point of encouragement and frustration. Encouragement because they did it. Frustration because it was too late.

“It’s encouragement that I believe in these guys immensely,” Young said Tuesday. “You hate seeing guys you believe in struggle to the level we did this year.”

The Rangers should not have been this bad. Players didn’t perform to the standard they set a year ago. Pitching was sporadic. Hitting and run production came nowhere close to the level they expected. Injuries.

Start with the injury to third baseman Josh Jung, who must be listed as a concern until he proves he can remain healthy for an extended period. Jung is one of the best players on this team, but since he was selected in the first round of the 2019 MLB Draft, he’s had a hard time staying healthy. A wrist injury limited him to 46 games this season.

Playoff hero Adolis Garcia’s production dropped, and he struggled. Playoff hero Evan Carter suffered a back injury early in the season and there is quiet concern this could be a problem in 2025.

Outfielder Wyatt Langford was fantastic in the final month of the season, and was named the A.L. Player of the Month. Before then he played like a rookie, which he was. Catcher Jonah Heim looked exhausted. First baseman Nathaniel Lowe was not a corner threat.

Young said ownership has given him everything necessary to be competitive. However the Rangers’ messy TV situation plays out, Young said it’s zero reason why the team can’t win in 2025. But do not expect them to flood the free agent market with big cash offers.

“Biggest remedy is improving the guys we currently have. We need Adolis to bounce back. We need Jonah Heim to bounce back. We need Leody Taveras to take the next step. We need a healthy Josh Jung and Evan Carter,” Young said. “That’s a bigger upgrade than we can get anywhere else in the industry.”

Bochy, 69, says he is committed to managing in ‘25, the third and final year of his contract. After that, he’s not sure. Expect him to stay on if the team can win. He says he is happy here, and this is “where this will end.”

Bochy’s history says it could end with another World Series. In his previous stop, San Francisco, he started a trend of winning a World Series every other year that featured three rings.

The Rangers are not a bad team, but they had a bad year.

Next year they have to prove their World Series was not a fluke, and that will begin by finally putting Houston behind them.