Skip Schumaker took over a team that was two years removed from a World Series crown and trying to get back to the playoffs before the 2026 season began.
Now, he's the manager of a team that missed the playoffs for the third straight season after the Texas Rangers lost to the Minnesota Twins, 6-4 , on Sunday on the season's final day.
The Rangers (80-82) needed a win on Sunday, combined with an Astros loss, to win the AL West. The Rangers would not have made the playoffs as the Astros ended up winning their game in Sacramento against the Athletics .
Days like Sunday are why the Rangers are going to miss the playoffs he told Rangers Sports Network after the game.
The Rangers lost the road series with the Twins and won just one road series in the second half of the season. At one point, the Rangers went more than two months without winning a road series. That led to a road record of 35-46, well below the Astros' 42-39 record away from home.
That was one of two reasons the Rangers will be watching the playoffs from home instead of hosting an AL wild card playoffs series on Tuesday.
"We just weren't good enough, you know?" he said. "We weren't good enough on the road and we weren't good enough against teams we should have beat."
Texas was also 33-38 against teams with a record of .500 or better. The Astros had a record of 29-26 in those games. Houston also won the Silver Boot Series by a wide margin, claiming any potential tiebreaker with the Rangers. Had Texas won two of those rivalry games, it would be heading to the postseason instead of Houston.
It's going to lead to a lot of soul searching for Schumaker and the baseball staff this offseason, saying "... there's too good of talent in that room for us to fall short."
"They gave it everything they had the whole year through [game] 162," he said. "I'm know grateful for that. But the goal was to get to the postseason and make a run and we didn't do that. We fell short and that's going to hurt for a little bit."
The Rangers will have significant decisions to make this offseason, but those decisions may get put on hold in December if MLB owners and the MLB Players Association are unable to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement by Dec. 1. If they can't, the owners intend to lockout the players, as they did between the 2021 and 2022 seasons, until an agreement is reached.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/rangers/onsi as Skip Schumaker Identifies Two Biggest Reasons Rangers Missed Playoffs .
