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Have Rangers Relied Too Much on Unexpected Contributors?
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- Have Rangers Relied Too Much on Unexpected Contributors?
Have Rangers Relied Too Much on Unexpected Contributors?
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
In sports, every successful team needs to have contributions from places they didn't necessarily expect.
When the Texas Rangers won the World Series in 2023, 21-year-old Evan Carter was called up late in the season and wound up hitting third in the lineup for much of the postseason run.
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Additionally, current Rangers first-base coach Travis Jankowski came up big in the World Series after superstar Adolis Garcia was injured.
Flash forward three years later, and the 2026 Rangers have had their best shot to make the postseason since lifting up the trophy.
Like the 2023 team, Texas has gotten its fair share of unexpected contributions this season, but it almost feels like the season has been shaped by what they haven't gotten, as opposed to what they have.
Coming into the year, there wasn't much doubt that the starting pitching was shaping up to be the strength of the team.
In 2025, Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi were two of the best pitchers in the American League, and with MacKenzie Gore now thrown into the mix, it wasn't hard to picture a reality where the Rangers had one of, if not the best, 1-2-3 punch in all of baseball.
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However, that has certinally not happened this season. deGrom, Eovaldi, and Gore have all been serviceable but nothing spectacular.
In fact, that sentiment can be echoed about the Texas pitching staff as a whole, which at times this season has been led by none other than Cal Quantrill .
Despite not making the team out of Spring Training, Quantrill has been the Rangers' best pitcher for much of the time he's been in the rotation. In his last eight starts, the veteran right-hander has posted a 1.59 ERA.
On the other side of the ball, Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford seem poised to have seasons up to par with some of baseball's best sluggers but instead have missed much of the year on the Injured List, leaving none other than Ezequiel Duran to be the team's best offensive player.
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There's no denying the fact that these contributions are what's kept the Rangers afloat in the postseason race for as long as they have, but it's also not hard to wonder what the season would look like if some of the safer bets cashed in.
Had Seager and Langford not only been healthy but produced at their capable levels to pair alongside Duran's breakout season, there's no telling where this offense would be.
On the other side of the ball, had Quantrill's strong year come at the same time as a typical season from deGrom, Eovaldi, and Gore, the rotation could no doubt be on par with last season's historic group.
At the end of the day, it's easy to wonder how good this team could be if its stars had been on the field and performing for much of the year, but there's no time left for what-ifs.
Texas is still firmly in the postseason picture and will need its best players to be exactly that if they want to make it back to October for the first time since winning it all .
