The Texas Rangers World Series Defense Ends By Missing The Playoffs

The Texas Rangers entered the 2024 season as defending World Series champions after their magical 2023 postseason run. They end 2024 with a near guarantee to finish under .500 after being officially eliminated from the playoffs with eight games remaining in the regular season.

There may not be a better example of how Major League Baseball has devalued the regular season, encouraged randomness in the postseason, as well as how injuries and under-performance can easily derail most teams. The 2023 Rangers finished 90-72 before going on a tear in the playoffs. They started 5-0, sweeping the Tampa Bay Rays and 101-win Baltimore Orioles. 

After closing out a hard-fought ALCS with two blowout wins at Minute Maid Park in Houston, the Rangers easily handled the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games, outscoring them 19-8 in three consecutive wins. Manager Bruce Bochy was hailed for his leadership and calm, steady coaching style. Corey Seager was the World Series MVP after an outstanding regular season, making his $325 million contract seem like a bargain.

With eight games remaining in 2024, Seager is on the 60-day injured list, Bochy is finishing up his fourth losing season in five years as a manager, and postseason hero Adolis Garcia turned in one of the worst offensive seasons of any player in baseball. Welcome to baseball.

BALTIMORE - Corey Seager of the Texas Rangers high-fives Leody Taveras after hitting a grand slam in the fourth inning during the game between the Texas Rangers and the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Friday, May 26, 2023. (Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Texas Rangers Show Fragility Of MLB Success

What happened? How did the Rangers go from the top of the baseball world to third place in their division? 

The easy explanation is injuries. Max Scherzer made just nine starts, Jon Gray made 19 starts, and Jacob deGrom was only able to return for two starts. That forced Texas to turn to Dane Dunning for 14 starts. He posted a 5.38 ERA. 

Josh Jung played just 46 games, Evan Carter 45 games and Corey Seager 123. Even the players who remained healthy and contributed on the margins, like Leody Taveras and Adolis Garcia, did not repeat their 2023 success. Taveras had 2.4 wins above replacement in 2023, but just 0.9 in 2024. Garcia went from 4.6 to -0.3 WAR. Combining injuries with declining performance from key supporting players is a recipe for failure.

That's not exactly surprising, but it does highlight some key points for team and roster building. Managers don't matter much. The playoffs are mostly random. Depth is important, and there's plenty of luck involved in putting player pieces together.

The Rangers didn't win the World Series because Bruce Bochy gets the best out of his players, because if he did, why did so many of them see their production collapse in his second year? They won because, like every team that wins the postseason tournament, they had players get hot at the right time. Garcia hit .323/.382/.726 in the playoffs in 2023, hitting eight home runs in 15 games.

It was reminiscent of Corey Seager's 2020 postseason with the World Series-winning Dodgers, when he hit .328/.425/.746 with eight home runs in 18 games. Seager then hit .188 in the 2021 playoffs. 

There's no way to predict which players will succeed at the right times, nor is there a way to predict injuries. Much of baseball team building is putting together depth and hoping for the best. The Rangers may have learned that lesson the hard way in 2024.