Rangers officially eliminated from playoff contention for second straight season

While the season isn't officially over, it will be soon as the Texas Rangers have officially been eliminated from playoff contention following a 4-1 loss to Minnesota on Tuesday.

Not only that, it was their eighth straight loss and the attention turns to somehow finding a way to salvage the final five games of 2025 and get out of the season with a winning record.

Season marked with offensive shortcomings mercifully comes to an end

On paper, this team was determined to be one of the best teams in the American League, if not throughout the entirey of Major League Baseball heading into the season.

What we know now is that not only do pre-season rankings carry very little weight. We also now that things are not always what they seem and there were plenty of flaws present among the 2025 Texas Rangers.

On Tuesday, when the Rangers got eliminated, they were hitting .235 as a team. This ranked sixth-worst in all of MLB and a position the Rangers were familiar with all season, routinely sitting in the bottom 10 of the league all year long.

Truth of the matter is this. Texas simply failed to score runs. With five games left they are the ninth-worst run producing team (663), 156 runs less than the league leading 819 of the New York Yankees.

On top of all that, the Rangers are 21-27 in one-run games, 32-46 away from Globe Life Field and a staggering 29 games with scoring one or fewer runs. It just ultimately was a team that failed to produce runs, despite the talent level on the roster.

Now where do the Rangers go from here?

Well, they finish out the remaining five games of the season and take some time to truly evaluate the talent level that is currently on the roster. Next comes making important decisions regarding the direction they want to take this winter.

They will likely let the younger players shine over the final games, having already officially ruled out Corey Seager and Marcus Semien for the season prior to Tuesday's game. It might mean even have Adolis Garcia, Jonah Heim, Josh Jung and Jake Burger taking a backseat.

The Rangers will also go into the ending thinking about the legacy that Bruce Bochy is possibly leaving behind. In his three seasons at the helm, Bochy delivered a World Series but ended up missing the playoffs the next two seasons. With his contract being up at the end of the season, will he retire? Does he go elsewhere? Do the Rangers feel compelled to bring him back?

All these questions will need to be answered during the offseason but one thing is guaranteed. They can't afford to replicate the structure of the past two seasons and it all starts with the choices they make from here.