Rangers finish season with 'gut punch' that was all too familiar

The Texas Rangers' season is officially over. And while Bruce Bochy might have called the way his team finished a "gut punch," it felt all too familiar in a year where the team got in its own way far too often.

On the final day of the regular season, Bochy's squad lost leads of 2-0, 5-2, and 8-5. It looked like they were poised to win their final game and clinch a winning record thanks to Rowdy Tellez's homer in the 10th. They twice had runners make outs on the bases, a day after having a runner thrown out at home. They failed to get a run home from third base with less than two outs. "This was a gut punch," Bruce Bochy said after the game.

Texas Rangers finish 2025 with a thud, not a bang

The Texas Rangers entered last week just two games out of first place in the AL West. They then went 2-10 over their final 12 games. They were eliminated before the final weekend. And then they demonstrated why they were eliminated.

There are, of course, plenty of questions surrounding the team. Will Bruce Bochy be back? What about Adolis Garcia? What will the rotation look like in 2026?

As the Texas Rangers work to answer the question of how they rebuild for the next season, after two straight years of missing the playoffs, they need to work towards the bigger question. Why was a team loaded with so much talent so mediocre? If they don't answer that one, they're bound to toil in similar ways next summer as well.