Texas Rangers win 2024 Most Disappointing Team trophy, & head into a ‘scary’ future

As the current Chicago White Sox try to make history to become the worst team in the modern era of Major League Baseball, these current Texas Rangers must hoist the 2024 Most Disappointing Team trophy.

If you win a World Series and follow that by not even reaching .500, that title is automatically yours. The momentum, and money, the Texas Rangers created, spent and made, will not only not result in a second consecutive World Series but missing the playoffs, too.

This all feels very Rangers. A World Series followed with a belly flop into an empty pool. This season is a waste rather than a bust. This team features the sixth highest payroll in MLB should be better than a fight for .500.

This is not what Rangers primary owner Ray Davis expected.

The Rangers close out their home schedule on Sunday against the Seattle Mariners at 1:35 p.m. Two hours later, across the street, the Dallas Cowboys host the Baltimore Ravens, ensuring whatever the Rangers do few will notice.

The Rangers finish the season on the road with q three-game series in Oakland and Anaheim, and then it’s on to 2025. Unless Rangers manager Bruce Bochy can turn tap water into chocolate milkshakes, the team will finish with a losing record for the seventh time in the last eight years.

The Texas Rangers ‘issues’

The team recently re-signed GM Chris Young to a contract extension, and all signs point to Bochy returning for the third year of his three-year deal. Those two aren’t a concern. The concern is how this team can position itself to be “around it” in 2025, which will be affected by a problem that has no easy solution.

The one-year, $90 million TV broadcast “band-aid” the Rangers slapped on via Bally Sports comes off after the season. Whatever the new solution is will affect the club’s ability to spend money on players.

The uncertainty about its TV revenue was used by management as a primary reason why the team was quiet last offseason. Was it the reason why they let ‘23 playoff pitching hero Jordan Montgomery walk? Didn’t help. (BTW, Monty’ has a 6.23 ERA in 112 innings for Arizona this season).

There is a very good chance that conservative approach will be used again this offseason.

According to people familiar with this situation, the Rangers are contemplating various models, including potentially starting its own regional sports network (RSN), as well as maintaining its relationship with Bally Sports. The latter looks increasingly probable.

The challenge is how to maintain that level of revenue while reaching the maximum number of TV sets. The name “Bally Sports” is the most bruised in all of pro sports, and while Rangers fans don’t want to hear this, but this is where they are.

Like so many other teams, the Rangers have been frustrated by the distribution problems that have beset teams all over North America. The team is determined to solve the present reality that has left so many fans unable to watch the games on their TV.

Bally Sports is still in the same place it’s been for the last year-and-a-half, bankruptcy. This has handcuffed the Rangers’ ability to assemble a stable plan for their future.

Bally Sports will never be the monster it was in sports TV world, but it’s not dead. There are signs this bankruptcy proceeding may be done as “early as” November. Bally Sports Southwest has actually spent money on studio upgrades, with a plan to move forward with its remaining teams, including the Rangers.

Club officials have been warned that Bally may not have a new plan to offer its teams until April of 2025. There is no way the Rangers can wait that long.

Having already lost former “tenants,” the Dallas Stars and Dallas Mavericks, Bally Sports Southwest will need the Rangers to remain something more than just another channel few watch. This is a much bigger issue for the baseball team more than hockey and basketball.

The Stars became the first major North American sports franchise to go “streaming” only; the majority of its regular-season games will be on the startup “Victory +” app, which is free to download. Industry professionals are closely watching if this advertising-based model will provide the Stars the type of revenue necessary to maintain its payroll.

As it tries to build its platform, “Victory +” guaranteed the Stars a certain amount, which allows the Stars to determine, with little risk, if this can work. NHL team’s local broadcast rights are not nothing, but hockey teams typically rely on other revenue streams, usually gate/attendance, more than media rights to assist making payroll.

“Victory +” has contacted several teams across multiple sports, and their offers have been met with a mix of yes combined with curiosity and skepticism. Industry people insist that “this is the future,” but no one thinks linear TV is dead.

The Mavericks will have all of their non-nationally televised games carried on WFAA, or KMPX. The Mavericks can do this because the NBA’s national TV contract is so big they can afford “the hit” of leaving Bally Sports.

The mother load for local sports TV broadcast rights is baseball; an MLB regular season is six months of programming, and that content has been worth a fortune to networks that have paid MLB teams billions, which has made players, GMs and managers rich..

One of the biggest reasons why the Rangers spent fearlessly in free agency is what had been a lucrative local TV contract. If that revenue isn’t the same, it changes the team.

The Rangers waste of a season is over, and while they need to figure out their outfield problems, their biggest issue that needs a solution is their plan to “fix their TV” set.