The Rangers are running out of runway, and the path back to the AL West title is painfully narrow.
Texas enters Saturday at 60-63, sitting three games behind the 63-60 Astros with 39 games left. But the standings do not tell the whole story.
Houston won the season series 9-4 and owns the head-to-head tiebreaker, which means the Rangers are really dealing with an effective four-game hole. Matching the Astros’ final record will not be enough.
If Texas is going to pull this off, it needs help in the places that have dragged it all year: the middle of the order and the rotation.
That puts Corey Seager, Jacob deGrom and MacKenzie Gore at the center of the conversation.
Seager has to be the offensive spark. The Rangers cannot afford to keep waiting for their most dangerous hitter to catch fire while he sits below the standard he set in his first four seasons in Texas.
He has hit .198 with a .304 on-base percentage and a .388 slugging percentage, with 12 homers and 35 RBIs in 64 games. The power is still there in flashes, but the hard contact has not been as steady, and the 67 strikeouts in 270 plate appearances have helped keep the production from turning into anything sustained.
If Seager stays under .200, Texas is going to keep living on the edge, needing everything to break just right. What the Rangers really need is a middle ground: better on-base work, more extra-base damage, and a bat that changes innings more often.
A finish closer to his 2025 line - .271 with 21 home runs and an .860 OPS in 102 games - would give a lineup averaging just over four runs per game a real lift. Even one extra win from that kind of rebound would erase a quarter of the effective gap.
Then there’s deGrom, whose range of outcomes is wider than anyone else on the roster.
He left Thursday’s start after two innings with right triceps fatigue and had an MRI on Friday. The results were still pending Saturday morning, so the Rangers do not know when, or if, he’ll be back on the mound soon.
Before the injury, deGrom was 8-8 with a 3.95 ERA in 120 2/3 innings, with 147 strikeouts and only 31 walks. The ERA is up from 2.97 last season, but the bat-missing and strike-throwing still look elite.
What happens next matters a lot. If deGrom misses time, Texas is down its best starter and the innings that help protect a bullpen already being asked to do too much.
Nathan Eovaldi is already out with right elbow inflammation, so the rotation can’t afford many more dents. A short absence would be manageable.
A healthy finish with ace-level outings could change a game or two, and that’s a huge chunk of the ground Texas needs to make up.
Gore is the healthiest of the three, and maybe the easiest place for the Rangers to find immediate traction.
His numbers are uneven - 6-9 with a 4.43 ERA over 134 innings and 66 earned runs allowed - but the strikeout and walk totals tell a more encouraging story. He has fanned 149 and walked 49, which suggests he’s often been better than the ERA says. That tension between the results and the underlying stuff is what makes him so interesting.
His last outing showed what Texas is hoping for. Gore held the Angels to one run over 5 1/3 innings and struck out nine.
One start won’t fix a season, but it did show how quickly he can tilt a game when he’s missing bats. The Rangers need that version more often, especially with deGrom and Eovaldi both on uncertain timelines.
The math is simple enough: Texas does not need all three to be perfect. But if Seager keeps scuffling, deGrom stays sidelined, and Gore remains inconsistent, the Rangers probably won’t catch Houston.
If Seager steadies the lineup, deGrom gives them even a limited ace stretch, and Gore strings together more starts like his latest one, the race becomes a lot more interesting. If not, that four-game effective deficit may be too much to overcome.
In Other News...
Rangers Fans Finally Get An Easier Way To Watch Local Games
Rangers fans got another option for following the club at home as the team broadened its Rangers Sports Network reach to the BZZR app on Roku devices, with the first game on the platform marking the latest step in the move to make local broadcasts easier to access. The Rangers shifted their direct-to-consumer streaming from Victory+ to BZZR at the All-Star break, while still keeping games on traditional RSN outlets with the same broadcast crew.
For viewers, the practical part matters most: the transition has been built so fans who already subscribed through Victory+ are being moved into BZZR accounts without having to pay again for 2026. It is the kind of behind-the-scenes change that does not alter what happens on the field, but it can make a real difference for anyone who has spent the season trying to figure out where to find the next Rangers game. [Read more 🡒]
Three Rangers Just Became The Center Of A Tough Offseason Debate
The Rangers deadline moves were modest, but they still hinted at how this front office is trying to patch together the roster for the stretch run and beyond. Texas added relievers Chase Silseth and Adam Macko, plus catcher Logan OHoppe, while sending utility man Josh Smith to Toronto, a set of transactions that did little to quiet the bigger question hanging over the club: which parts of the current roster still fit going forward?
That question now circles back to three veterans who have not delivered enough to feel safe. Jake Burger has driven in runs, but the strikeouts keep piling up. Evan Carter has battled through a rough season at the plate and has had trouble against left-handed pitching. Danny Jansen, brought in on a two-year contract, has struggled both offensively and defensively, and that combination makes his place on the roster one of the more uncomfortable offseason topics the Rangers have to sort out. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Suddenly Face A Jacob deGrom Problem They Can't Afford
Jacob deGroms latest outing ended after only two innings, a jolt the Rangers did not need at a time when the rotation has already been stretched thin by injuries to key pieces like Nathan Eovaldi and Josh Jung. Texas has spent much of the season trying to patch things together, and while several pitchers are working their way back from rehab, the club has not had many opportunities to feel settled on the mound.
Now the focus turns to deGroms right triceps, with more testing needed to sort out how serious the issue might be. The Rangers can only absorb so many setbacks before the strain starts showing in their overall performance, and for a team that has counted on deGrom and Eovaldi to anchor things, the margin for error keeps shrinking. [Read more 🡒]