3 players who could be the Rangers biggest X-factors in 2025

Every team has them. The players they need to step up in order to get the team over several barriers in a long season,

Sometimes it's a young power hitter, other times it's a veteran journeyman playing a variety of roles, however most times it's the player you'd likely never expect. For the 2025 Texas Rangers those X-factors are hiding in plain sight.

After a down season of missing the playoffs after their World Series, Texas is on the hunt to get back to the postseason and cement their place as a top team. In order to do that, these four guys need to step up in a more elevated role for Texas this year.

Evan Carter

The Rangers are coming into the 2025 regular season with one of the deepest lineups in Major League Baseball. They added a few free agents and are counting on players like Carter who are returning from injuries to increase that depth.

Carter, 22, missed the majority of last season with a back injury. He's back at full strength and Texas is counting on him to be the team's everyday centerfielder, if he can stay healthy and figure out how to hit against lefties.

This spring his stats will confuse a handful of people. Only hitting .200 in four games, Carter has knocked the cover off the ball. Matter of a fact, his first at-bat of the spring was a lineout hit 103.7 mph off the bat.

When he jumped onto the scene in September 2023, it was the boost the team needed down the stretch. He carried that into the postseason and became an instrumental role in the team's championship due to his play on both sides of the ball. While he's still a kid in that clubhouse, he's still seen as a major impact player and when he's successful provides a scary depth to that lineup.

Tyler Mahle

The 30-year-old is finally entering his first fully healthy season in a few years after a recovery from Tommy John surgery. Mahle, in his second season with Texas will be asked to be a vital member of the Rangers rotation this season with the departure of Andrew Heaney this winter.

Speaking of Heaney, that is essentially the role Mahle will have to play. The backend starter, expected to go out there every fifth game, eat innings and keep Texas in ballgames. Then as the season progresses, it's important that Mahle continues to make starts as replacing the back half of a rotation usually means relying on arms that have less experience, which can be hit or miss.

It will be hard to match Heaney's 160 innings of production from last year but if Mahle can duplicate or come close to his 2022 season where he started 22 games, Texas should be in good shape to keep the rotation in tact for the regular season.

And all is looking positive for Mahle thus far in spring. Through two starts he's only allowed two runs and three strikeouts while continuing to ramp us his four-seam velocity and still keeping his secondary pitches sharp.

Jacob Webb

I think Webb will be one of those relievers that Bochy will lean on heavily throughout the year. He has a skillset that will allow the Rangers to put him in a variety of roles, including multi-inning outings, late-inning relief and sometimes even as the team's closer.

His versatility will definitely be vital early in the season as the Rangers attempt to find the best use for their bullpen. It will also be important as Texas will be without Josh Sborz for the first two months of the year as he recovers from shoulder surgery.

For Webb this spring, he's made three starts and has gotten roughed up in two of them. Still way too early to overreact to anything but coming in to work one inning and giving up runs won't work in the regular season.

I imagine Webb being used in a similar role as Chris Stratton in 2023, when he made a total of 64 appearances (42 STL, 22 TEX) and was used in a bulk role or late-inning spot with Bochy down the stretch of that regular season.