Odds stacked against Rangers as Seattle is favored to repeat as AL West champions

As we inch closer to spring training, predictions about division winners are already dominating the conversation and with no surprise, the Texas Rangers are not looking too good.

When it comes to the American League West Division, the Seattle Mariners are favored to repeat as division champs, the consensus is that the Rangers have the third-best odds out of the five team division.

After two straight missed postseasons, the Rangers spent the offseason dumping underperformers on big contracts and replacing them with a lot of hit-or-miss targets. That has led Texas to being seen as a bottom 10 team heading into the new year.

Rangers trending downward in AL West conversation

It's a long road back to contention for the Rangers as the moves to replace what they lost in free agency have been ones that most other teams would consider to be spring training invites to fill a roster.

To date, their biggest move have been the deductions: trading Marcus Semien and releasing Adolis Garcia, Jonah Heim, Josh Sbroz and Jacob Webb after choosing to non-tender them back in November.

Outside of outfielder Brandon Nimmo, who they got in the Semien trade, their effort to get better included the big names of Danny Jansen, Tyler Alexander and Alexis Diaz. Which those signings were all announced on the same day.

Meanwhile, Seattle has retained most of their stars, the Houston Astros signed one of the bigger Japanese free agents, the Athletics are now spending money and even the Los Angeles Angels added reinforcements and finally dumped Anthony Rendon.

Then the calendar flipped to 2026 and President of Baseball Operations Chris Young stated that the focus has shifted to filling out the rest of the pitching staff, hinting that the offense might already be settled. Which is a scary thing to hear given that no real added improvements have been made, they've mostly been addition by subtraction.