Rangers History: 4 trades that helped deliver the franchise's first World Series ring

As the 2025 regular season gets ready to kick off in a couple of weeks, the Texas Rangers are preparing to get the bad taste of 2024 out of their mouth and get back to a season resembling their 2023 World Series campaign.

In that same vein, I decided it would be fun to revisit that World Series year by highlighting four important trades that helped Texas get there in the first place. And while exploring my choices, there were some striking similarities between the makeup of the 2023 and 2025 rosters.

4 trades from the Texas Rangers that had direct impact on World Series championship in 2023

December 21, 2019: Texas Rangers acquired OF Adolis Garcia from the St. Louis Cardinals for cash considerations

There's a bit of background necesasry to get the full picture. Garcia was indeed acquired via trade from St. Louis after he was designated for assignment by the Cardinals a few days prior to the trade. However, Texas ended up DFAing him a year later once signing Mike Foltynewicz but no other team was interested and he remained in the organization.

Which thank goodness for that because he was recalled to the big league club in April 2021 and from there would never return to the minors. Garcia was named AL Rookie of the Month in May 2021, hitting .321, slugging .633 and hitting 11 home runs. From there he became a franchise favorite in Arlington and has since been a two-time All-Star.

During the 2023 season, Garcia finished the year with 39 home runs. 107 RBIs and nine stolen bases. It was't until the postseason until the rest of MLB hopped on the El Bombi train. In seven ALCS games he drove in 15 runs on five home runs and was name ALCS MVP. Then in the first game of the World Series, Garcia hit a walk-off solo home run in the 11th inning off Arizona's Miguel Castro to give the Rangers a 1-0 series lead.

July 29, 2021: Texas Rangers traded OF Joey Gallo and LHP Joely Rodriguez to the New York Yankees for INF Josh Smith, INF Ezequiel Duran, RHP Glenn Otto and OF Trevor Hauver

At the time this was an all-time low for the Rangers. Texas was in the middle of a eventual 102 loss season and Gallo was perhaps one of the biggest names driving attendance and hope to the Rangers and their fanbase.

That devastation lasted a bit longer until the signings of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien that offseason. From there the optimism returned and although the 2022 season still wasn't successful they were trending in a positive direction with Duran and Smith expected to play a major role in that turnaround.

Smith's breakout season wasn't until 2024 but I during the 2023 season, his versatility helped keep the team afloat when Seager and Josh Jung went down to injuries. Duran was the bigger contributor that season playing a similar role, filling in for injuries during the first half of the season slashing .308/.344/.526/.870 with 12 HRs. 35 RBIs 16 doubles and 37 runs scored in 70 games.

March 12, 2022: Texas Rangers traded INF Isiah Kiner-Falefa and RHP Ronny Henriuez to Minnesota Twins for C Mitch Garver

It wasn't long ago that Rangers' fans were calling IKF the next great Texas Ranger but then Chris Young decided to shock the baseball world and commit nearly half a billion dollars to Seager and Semien.

With Seager and Semien manning the middle infield and the hopeful emergence of rookie third baseball Josh Jung, Kiner-Falefa was on the outside looking in at the time. It was then when Young made that decision by realizing Kiner-Falefa didn't have a spot on the roster and traded him for Garver. Not only did the trade allow Jung to eventually step into the hot corner role, Garver was also a huge addition for Texas and proved to be pivotal down the stretch during the 2023 season.

When Jonah Heim suffered a wrist injury in July, Garver stepped up and hit 15 home runs, drove in 33 runs and batted .277 with a .908 OPS post All-Star break. Garver also has two iconic moments in Rangers' postseason history with a Game 2 ALDS Grand Slam against Baltimore's Jacob Webb and the breakthrough RBI single in the series-clinching Game 5 of the World Series off Arizona's Zac Gallen.

July 30, 2023: Texas Rangers traded LHP John King, RHP Tekoah Roby and INF Thomas Saggese to St. Louis Cardianls for LHP Jordan Montgomery and RHP Chris Stratton

Perhaps the most impactful trade of the Chris Young tenure, Montgomery provided a much-needed spark of energy to the second half of the Rangers season. Right before the trade deadline, Texas lost Nathan Eovaldi for a few weeks and were already without Jacob deGrom and Jake Odorizzi for the year.

Texas needed pitching and went out to grab Montgomery and Stratton to bolster their pitching staff. Montgomery arrived in Texas and performed like Nolan Ryan. In 11 starts, the lefty recorded a 2.79 ERA, 58 strikeouts, a 1.09 WHIP and 7.7 K/9 in 69 2/3 innings. He was also a huge performer in the postseason, winning three games and throwing 2 1/3 scoreless innings against the Houston Astros in Game 7 of the ALCS.

Stratton also provided a wealth of depth for a struggling bullpen appearing in 22 games down the stretch for the Rangers, which gave Bruce Bochy a lot of room to breath.