Texas Rangers rank among top teams in the MLB on national power rankings
The Texas Rangers just won five straight games and are coming off a series sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rangers are 8-2 to start the season and their starting rotation has been lights-out with the third-lowest ERA (2.68) in the Majors.
The Rangers are ranked near the top of most national power rankings. Here’s a breakdown of where they fall in nine publications’ rankings.
CBS Sports, Matt Snyder
One of the main reasons I loved the Rangers so much heading into the season was that I expected the offense to be among the best in baseball. It actually hasn’t been very good at all so far and they’re still 8-2. Watch out, AL. They are better than this.
Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY
Kumar Rocker joins Jack Leiter in the “completed five innings” club.
Will Leitch, MLB.com
The Rangers are not difficult to figure out. They are 6-0 when holding their opponent to three runs or fewer this season, and they lost both games in which they allowed four-plus runs. Part of the reason for that? The very slow starts for Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Jake Burger and Joc Pederson, among others.
David Schoenfield, ESPN
Jacob deGrom pitched only 10 innings against major league competition in spring training and gave up five runs and two home runs, so nobody knew quite what to expect in his 2025 debut, but he delivered five scoreless innings against the Red Sox, giving up two hits with five strikeouts. Though it wasn’t quite vintage deGrom, he averaged 96.7 mph with his four-seamer while relying more on his slider and changeup than he traditionally has (he threw 29 sliders and 11 changeups out of 73 pitches), but it worked. The Red Sox went 1-for-11 with six strikeouts against those two pitches.
Joel Reuter, Bleacher Report
With rookie starters Jack Leiter (W, 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K) and Kumar Rocker (ND, 5.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K) both throwing the ball well in their most recent start, things are looking up for a Rangers team that had no shortage of questions on the pitching side when the season began. After scoring just 18 runs through their first seven games, they plated 15 in their three-game sweep of the Rays.
Jeff Sanders, San Diego Union-Tribune
The road to the majors was rocky, but right-hander Jack Leiter (2-0, 0.90 ERA, 10 Ks, 10 IP) is looking every bit as dominant as he did in college.
D.J. Short, NBC Sports
The Rangers have the best record in the American League despite hitting just .192 as a team so far.
Jordan Shusterman, Yahoo Sports
The most remarkable part of Adolis García’s first five games is not that he hit three doubles and two homers but that he didn’t strike out once. Let’s be somewhat wary of a strong start for the muscular masher, however, as Garcia was red-hot in April last year before he posted a porous .628 OPS over the remainder of the season.
Tim Britton, Johnny Flores Jr. and Andy McCullough, The Athletic
The Rangers brass believes its postseason-missing campaign in 2024 was an aberration and the championship season of 2023 should become more of the norm. Part of the reason is Langford, who was drafted No. 4 that summer. The 23-year-old outfielder held his own as a rookie last season, with 16 homers and an 111 OPS+ in 134 games. Texas believes his ceiling is much higher than that.
