Opening Day 2025 is finally here and the Texas Rangers are poised to make a lot of noise in the American League, beginning with today’s season opener at home against the Red Sox. I think I’ve got everything you need for today, beginning with this short hype video promoting the season slogan: All For Texas!
After last year’s disappointing defense of their first ever World Series title, the Rangers have made several changes in personnel and attitude so Bruce Bochy can continue his odd streak of winning championships every other season. General Manager Chris Young has admitted his mistake of assuming that the ’24 Rangers would produce exactly like the ’23 Rangers and, when they didn’t, mainly hoping they would “come around.” So, Young never made any moves and, as we all know, the team never quite put it together. Now, Young is vowing to never let that happen again. He’s been using the term “performance-based” over and over for the past six months. Baseball is a meritocracy, he keeps saying. And they’ve made a few dramatic moves to reflect this commitment to the culture. Neither Evan Carter, the team’s 2023 “Little Savior,” nor Dane Dunning, their best 2023 pitcher, are on the Opening Day roster. Nathaniel Lowe is out at first base for Jake Burger and Kyle Higashioka has been brought in to push Jonah Heim at catcher. Here’s a D Magazine article written by the legendary Jamey Newberg on Chris Young’s reflections on 2024 and his “performance-based” priorities for 2025.
The Rangers are picked by many regional and national pundits to not only win the AL West this year, but to take the American League pennant and return to the World Series. I haven’t found any writer or broadcaster picking Texas to win the World Series–the Dodgers and Braves are the favorites to win it all. But there’s a lot of excitement around the potential of a starting rotation that includes a steady Eovaldi, a healthy deGrom, and the electric Vandy boys, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker. Not to mention an offense that should be among the top two or three in the majors. Here’s a Rangers preview from Sports Illustrated’s Ryan Reynolds that includes five bold predictions about those pitchers and the Rangers’ chances in the American League. And here are ten things to know about the 2025 Rangers from the great Evan Grant.
Nasty Nate gets the start in Arlington today against Boston at 3:05.
Let’s Go Rangers!
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
Allan
“I’s Opening Day and we’re not in last place let’s hope in 3 weeks that we are still in the race – it’s Opening Day”
How could you leave out the Bit King Joc Pederson? A pearl necklace and “Dancing Queen” as his walk-up last year – no telling what he has in store.