Rangers key to turning season around is fixing just about everything

The Texas Rangers struggles to kick off the season have been well documented and the extent doesn't just limit itself to one major problem but rather a systemic issue that stretches multiple tiny factors.

While 40 games into the season, Texas sits just two games below .500 at 19-21 and sit in second place in the American League West. That sums up their season, playing at a clip that is exactly middle of the pack. Even sitting at 16th in MLB's latest power rankings.

Why are they mid though? To sum it up, they are failing at several parts of the game, which is keeping them from getting going. Let's unpack those reasons.

Rangers 1 thing to improve is actually not 1 thing

Stated pretty clearly, while most of the 30 MLB teams have one area to focus on ranging from bullpen effectiveness and throwing strikes to hitting left-handers or cutting down on errors. Texas is one of the few that are pretty much needing to fix a plethora of things.

Outside of the Mets, who's bar is set low at "Pretty Much Everything," Texas is simply put at "The little things." Good news is, only two games below .500, a pretty even run differential and an expected record of 20-20, there's room for meaningful improvement.

1. Hitting with runners in scoring position

A problem dating back the last couple of seasons, it really impacted Texas's production last year and is doing pretty much the same to kick off the 2026 season.

Last September, after climbing back into the division race, the Rangers trailed Houston and Seattle by only a handful of games. Then a tough series in Houston happened, going 0-for-9 with RISP against Hunter Brown and the Astros.

Then take the latest game for example, Monday night at home against Arizona where a 1-0 score did them in after leaving four runners and going 0-for-3 with RISP. That was a tame day filled with more lack of offense than any, mustering only four hits.

For the season however, they are hitting .232 and an OPS under .700 with RISP and just slightly better at .237 with men on base. They are an even worse .190 with 2 outs and RISP being just 29-for-153 with 46 strikeouts.

2. Starters going deeper in games

On the pitching side, the team is actually doing pretty well. Entering Tuesday, the pitching staff has the a 3.59 ERA, sixth in Major League Baseball, a 1.20 WHIP (6th, MLB) and .229 opponent batting average (9th, MLB).

The biggest issue for Texas has been their starting rotation, which holds an 11-17 record and 4.21 ERA. A major factor has been the inconsistencies of Nathan Eovaldi and who knows what is happening to MacKenzie Gore, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker.

Leiter and Rocker are mostly the biggest perpetrators, not going deep into their starts and having the bullpen mop up a lot of innings. Rocker's last two starts combined he pitched six innings while Leiter over the weekend threw nearly 100 pitches in 4.2 innings of work.

They also put themselves in nearly impossible situations to bounce back from. As a staff, they have a 6.59 ERA in the first inning of games. In that first, opponents are hitting .281 with 12 home runs, 12 doubles, .596 slugging percentage, .932 OPS and getting on base nearly 34 percent of the time in the first 41 games.

3. Stop the defensive miscues

Usually a great defensive team with accolades to back it up, Texas has been a tragic team on the field this year. After three consecutive seasons as one of the best teams at limiting errors, the Rangers have committed 18 errors to start the year.

It's been below expectations on the defensive side. Obviously, they were going to take a bit of a step backward after parting ways with Marcus Semien and Adolis Garcia but no one expected it to be this poor.

Those 18 errors can't all be traced directly to losses but we've seen situations get out of way due to them. On Friday, a miscue from Corey Seager and Justin Foscue opened up a Cubs three-run inning, the series finale in the Bronx last week was a display of how not to play defense and no one knows how to communicate on a pop-fly in shallow left-center field.

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