Globe Life is suddenly a pitcher's park, and the Rangers are trying to determine why

One of the biggest stories of the first half of this season has been how the Texas Rangers went from playing in a hitter’s park for so many years to one that has become an extreme pitcher’s park this season. It’s becoming a bigger story with evey game where runs are hard to come by. 

It’s also becoming a bigger story with every game, because even the Rangers’ President of Baseball Operations, Chris Young, is stumped as to what is going on. Earlier this week, Young went on the record, making it clear that he and the team’s front office are busy looking at what caused this change so abruptly.

Texas Rangers investigate Globe Life’s puzzling transformation into MLB’s toughest hitters’ park

“Our people are perplexed,” the Texas Rangers POBO told The Athletic this week. “We’re looking at everything from the humidor to which doors and windows are open at what points of time during the game for entrance and egress. We don’t have answers right now.”

That’s not to say this transformation was an overnight phenomenon, it started last year as a matter of fact. Globe Life this season is the most difficult run-scoring environment in the majors, according to Statcast’s Park Factor metric. It was also the third most difficult last season. However, in 2023, the year the Rangers won the World Series, it was the third-easiest.

Young and his people cannot figure out why. However, something has changed, and one reason the offense is struggling at home is due to the park.

Some of it has to be Texas’ issue. After all, the contrast of home and away performance is more pronounced for the Rangers than it is for their opponents.

The Rangers are batting just .458 on barrels at home. On the road, they’re at .722. Their opponents’ splits on barrels are .564 at Globe Life, .678 on the road. The league average, in all parks, is .676.

Guys like Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom are benefiting from having their home park be a pitcher’s park now, but the team as a whole is not. For now, it doesn’t appear as though the Texas Rangers are going to figure out the issue before this season ends. But the way this became an issue so quickly is a reason they want to get to the bottom of it eventually.