ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers only won 68 games in 2022. They finished in fourth place in the American League West Division, and it was a disappointing season for the tea, who had signed both Marcus Semien and Corey Seager to big-money deals in the 2021-22 offseason.
After their spending spree in the 2022-23 offseason, expectations were high for the Rangers. They signed Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, and Andrew Heaney to bolster their starting rotation, and they were hoping to compete with teams like the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros.
Those expectations have been surpassed.
We’re now 81 games into the 2023 season, and the Texas Rangers have the second-best record in the American League and third-best in all of baseball behind the Tampa Bay Rays and Atlanta Braves. They are 49-32, in first place in the AL West ahead of Houston and the surprising Los Angeles Angels, and they have shown no signs of slowing down.
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On the latest episode of Locked On Rangers, host Brice Paterik said about the Rangers, “Right now, they have the best run differential in all of baseball at +157, they have the most runs scored, they have the best offense, they have been exceptional at home and on the road, against basically everyone this season.”
He went on to list the five reasons the Texas Rangers are off to their best start in franchise history.
A trio of young players: Leody Taveras, Ezequiel Duran, and Josh Jung
Taveras is batting .296/.346/.479 with nine home runs in 67 games. He also has 13 doubles and two triples. Duran, who was part of the Joey Gallo trade, is batting .326/.367/.567 with 12 home runs in 62 games. And Jung is batting .274/.325/.455 with 16 home runs in 78 games. They’re all contributing to that league-leading offense.
Starting pitchers (minus Jacob deGrom)
The Rangers signed deGrom to lead this team and its starting rotation to the promised land, but deGrom just had Tommy John surgery, and best case scenario, he’ll be back sometime in 2024. So in his place, guys like Nathan Eovaldi, Dane Dunning, and Jon Gray are stepping up and helping the Rangers win. Eovaldi is 9-3 with a 2.82 ERA in just over 105 innings. He’s on pace for a career-high 210 innings. He had an incredible May but slowed down a hair in June. Dane Dunning is 7-1 with a 2.69 ERA in 10 starts, and Jon Gray is 6-3 with a 2.89 ERA. That’s three top-line starters, all with ERA’s below three.
Corey Seager
Seager is third on the team in bWAR at 2.9. He’s batting .345/.411/.609 with 10 home runs and 48 runs batted in. He’s only played in 49 games due to injury, but when he’s playing, he’s the best player on the team.
Adolis Garcia
Another contributor to the offense, Garcia is not only mashing—he has 20 home runs in 80 games–but he’s walking at a high rate as well. He’s having a career year in most of his stats, including walks, and he is two home runs behind his pace in 2021 (he was at 22 at the halfway point in that season) when he finished with 31, but Garcia also played in only 69 games in the second half of that season so if he plays a full season or closer to 162, he may surpass that number.
Josh Sborz and Bruce Bochy’s bullpen management
Paterik said about Sborz, “His strikeout rate is in the top three percent in baseball. His whiff rate is in the top one percent of baseball. His fastball velocity is in the top eight percent.” He added, “He’s not allowing a lot of hard contact. And he has been flat-out exceptional.”
As for Bochy’s bullpen management, Paterik said, “I trust Bruce Bochy.” He went on to say that even though the Rangers at the moment are on pace for 98 wins, Paterik thinks they can reach 100.
Additionally, the Rangers announced that they made a trade for reliever Aroldis Chapman. So that might be a big boost to the Rangers' bullpen.
This weekend will be a big test for the Rangers as they face the Houston Astros. Sure, the Astros might not be doing as well as they have the previous six or seven seasons, but they’re still the Astros, and it should be a competitive series.
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