Jake Burger’s September slump became a fitting snapshot of how the Rangers’ season unraveled.
Texas stayed alive in the playoff race longer than it probably should have, but the offense never really found steady ground, and Burger’s late fade was a big part of that story. The Rangers were in a division that was, by the source’s description, the worst in baseball, yet they still finished one game behind the Houston Astros.
In the end, though, the teams that moved on had stars producing when it mattered. Yordan Alvarez and Jeremy Pena were singled out for exactly that kind of stretch-run impact.
The Rangers didn’t get that kind of lift from Burger. And when your first baseman leads the club in walks, that tells you plenty about the on-base issues around him. Corey Seager and Joc Pederson also didn’t do enough, but this piece of the story centers on Burger, who was expected to provide a much better late push than he did.
There was still plenty to like about his overall season. Burger led Texas in both RBI and home runs, and he set career highs in both RBI and walks.
But the finish was rough. He was cold at the exact moment the Rangers needed somebody to carry the lineup through a mediocre playoff chase.
Injuries clearly shaped a lot of the season around him, but Burger was in the lineup for all but seven games, so his ups and downs were impossible to miss. By September, Texas still controlled its own fate before dropping five of its final seven games. That kind of collapse put even more pressure on every at-bat, and Burger’s struggles in those moments stood out.
The final month was especially harsh. He finished with more than twice as many strikeouts as hits, even though the contact he did make often did damage. Burger still managed five home runs and two doubles in that stretch, but the production came too late and too often in isolation while the team kept slipping.
For Texas, it was a disappointing season, and the Rangers have now missed the postseason every year since their 2023 World Series victory. The offseason task is obvious: sort out what went wrong with the offense when the pressure mounted.
Burger isn’t going anywhere at first base. The Rangers just need to make sure this kind of September doesn’t happen again.
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