{"id":939,"date":"2025-03-03T19:02:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T01:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/?p=939"},"modified":"2025-03-03T19:02:35","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T01:02:35","slug":"something-has-gone-wrong-if-the-texas-rangers-power-bats-dont-bounce-back-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/2025\/03\/03\/something-has-gone-wrong-if-the-texas-rangers-power-bats-dont-bounce-back-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Something has gone wrong if the Texas Rangers’ power bats don’t bounce back in 2025."},"content":{"rendered":"

SURPRISE, Ariz. \u2014 The Texas Rangers are determined to get back into the postseason and make another run at a title. To make that happen, they need to reestablish their identity. And there’s little question as to what that is.<\/strong><\/p>\n

"If you look at the playoff teams, minus one or two, they are usually the elite offensive teams," said Rangers baseball operations president Chris Young. "We’ve kind of designed our team that way. If you can hit and slug, it gives you a margin of error."<\/p>\n

"To build a top-five or top-three pitching staff this offseason would have been a tall order. But if we can be a top-10 staff with an elite offense, that’s a good recipe for success," he added.<\/p>\n

Manager Bruce Bochy agrees. "I think this offense can get back to where it was in ’23. That’s what we need to do. That’s kind of our identity right now, the slug on this team."<\/p>\n

The 2025 Rangers are here to slug, and they put on a nice display Sunday afternoon in a 6-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, featuring four Texas home runs. In fact, the Rangers had just seven hits for the afternoon, and only one was a single. Like I said, sluggers.<\/p>\n

Corey Seager, who has two World Series MVP awards to prove his mettle, missed 39 games with injuries last season. The Rangers’ offense is much more prone to struggle when he’s not hitting behind Marcus Semien at the top of Bochy’s lineup card.<\/p>\n

Who is this Jake Burger? What if I told you the last two seasons that Adolis Garc\u00eda has 64 home runs, and that Seager and Burger both have 63? That’s what happens when you hit long balls for the White Sox and Marlins instead of a World Series winner. The Rangers intend to supply Nathaniel Lowe’s first base replacement with a greater national showcase for his ability to turn on fastballs.<\/p>\n

Josh Jung, of course, started the All-Star Game as a rookie in 2023 but missed 116 games with injuries last season.<\/p>\n

"Jung got all of his. Home runs are going to be part of our identity," Bochy said after Sunday’s game.<\/p>\n

Joc Pederson was another important veteran signing this winter, and while he can’t always be counted upon to deliver bloop doubles with Diamondbacks scattered all over shallow right center, he can smash a few fastballs, too. Pederson hit 23 home runs for Arizona last year in fewer than 400 at-bats.<\/p>\n

You should also include backup catcher Kyle Higashioka in this mix, too. He hit 27 home runs for the Yankees and Padres in fewer than 500 at-bats the last two seasons, and the Rangers know that Jonah Heim’s 2024 fade (he lost 50 points from his on-base percentage, 100 off of his slugging percentage) had plenty to do with overwork the last two years. A greater sharing of the catching burden should produce more powerful offensive results this summer.<\/p>\n

Players coming in, players bouncing back from injury, Garc\u00eda rebounding from his offensive free fall \u2014 this club may not rebound from 683 runs scored last season all the way to the 881 it led the American League with in 2023, but there are reasons to think it’s pointed in the right direction.<\/p>\n

"Last year needed to go more perfectly than we anticipated in the front office," Young said. "Playing until the end of the season [the World Series ended Nov. 1], then having a short offseason and we had multiple players who had significant injuries going into the offseason \u2014 Seager, Garc\u00eda, [Max] Scherzer.<\/p>\n

View Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n

3 Texas Rangers observations: Evan Carter getting badly-needed reps vs. lefties<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carter is one of the Rangers’ brightest young players, but the biggest hurdle left for him is figuring out how to hit left-handed pitching.<\/p>\n

Texas Rangers plan to start Jacob deGrom at back end of rotation when season begins<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 36-year-old has yet to pitch in a game this spring, but is scheduled to make his debut Friday.<\/p>\n

New Rangers 1B Jake Burger shares ‘overjoyed’ reaction upon learning of trade to Texas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Burger appears to be getting an upgrade in coming to Texas from the 100-loss Miami Marlins.<\/p>\n

Texas Rangers top 30 prospects: No. 21 Former Wylie star Kohl Drake a much-needed lefty<\/strong><\/p>\n

Drake, who is from Sachse and attended Wylie High School, became a key left-handed pitcher in the Rangers’ system in 2024.<\/p>\n

Where do elder prospects Dustin Harris, Justin Foscue fit into Texas Rangers’ equation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both were once top-ranked prospects in the organization who now lack a clear path to the Rangers’ roster.<\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SURPRISE, Ariz. \u2014 The Texas Rangers are determined to get back into the postseason and make another run at a title. To make that happen, they need to reestablish their identity. And there’s little question as to what that is. "If you look at the playoff teams, minus one or two, they are usually the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/VDK436BDXRBV3PM2VYZYNJ5G4U.jpg?auth=85242bda54d09626e715039c6540661abd83722f539520fdfc4977c646066d1e&height=630&width=1200&smart=true&quality=80","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":941,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions\/941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}