CLEVELAND -- On Saturday night, with the bases loaded, a fastball out of the hand of Rangers reliever Robert Garcia plunked CJ Kayfus in the side in the bottom of the ninth inning.
That run would send the Guardians to the postseason, while the Rangers watched from the visitors’ dugout at Progressive Field. As the fireworks lit up the sky postgame, the Rangers grappled with the fact that they had just one more game to play before the 2025 season came to an end.
The following day didn’t get any better. For the second day in a row, the Rangers watched as the Guardians celebrated a victory, with Bryan Rocchio launching a walk-off three-run homer in the 10th inning for a 9-8 Cleveland win as his club secured the American League Central title.
As the crowd at Progressive Field chanted for Rocchio, the Rangers filtered into the tunnels, back to the visitors' clubhouse, where the mood very much reflected the season, which ended with an 81-81 record.
“You watch these teams celebrate, that's never fun to watch,” manager Bruce Bochy said.
Sunday capped an obviously disappointing season for the Rangers, one in which they put themselves in a position to make the postseason before a mid-September collapse ruined any chance of Bochy magic making a return in October.
Bochy has managed 28 years in the big leagues. He doesn’t ignore how disappointing this one has been.
“It's funny, as a manager, you go in every year thinking you're going to get there [to the postseason] and you're going to win,” Bochy said. “I think we all feel like we underachieved because we believed we would get there this year. We didn't get there. So that means we underachieved.”
The Rangers finished the season with an MLB-best 3.47 ERA, which is the first time the club has ever led the Majors in ERA. That figure is the fourth lowest in a full season in Washington/Texas franchise history (3.31 in 1983, 3.36 in 1978, 3.38 in 1967). The Rangers have previously led the American League in ERA once since moving to Texas in 1972, as their club-record 3.31 ERA in 1983 ranked second in MLB to only the Dodgers (3.10) that year.
This is the fewest wins by a team that led MLB in ERA across a full season (not 1994 or 2020) since the 1989 Dodgers, who had a league-best 2.95 ERA and went 77-83.
“The pitching did an incredible job this year,” Bochy said. “You look at the growth of Jack Leiter and even Kumar [Rocker], and granted, he went back down, but when he came back up, he showed a lot of growth. This is an invaluable experience for those two. You have to be encouraged about what this pitching staff did this year. It's the starting pitching -- and also the bullpen -- that's what will help you have a winning season. Those guys consistently did that for us.
“We just got shut down too many times offensively.”
And that’s really the story of the season.
Even before a plethora of injuries to major contributors like Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Nathan Eovaldi, Wyatt Langford and Evan Carter, the Rangers’ offense was bottom five in most major statistics. Texas dismissed offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker on May 4 and brought in Bret Boone -- with no previous coaching experience – the next day to attempt to right the ship.
What followed was more regression and underperformance across the board before the injuries sunk the season for good.
“No way, absolutely, no way [would I think we would miss the playoffs] with our pitching,” Bochy said. “You looked at the numbers, there's no way I would have. With this pitching, I felt like we should have won this division.”
It has been a long two years following the 2023 World Series – two years that have not included trips to October.
There hasn’t been too much roster turnover since then, though some new faces have shuffled in and out. That could change this offseason as the Rangers look to return to the postseason once again.
“I'm a big believer in chemistry and the culture in the clubhouse,” Bochy said. “I think it just creates the environment that you need for guys to play unselfishly and come together as one. Sure you see clubs where there's players that don't like each other. I've been on them. The clubhouse every year takes up a life of its own, and I think this year, it's been fine.”
Now the fate of Bochy is what really looms over the end of the 2025 season.
The Rangers’ manager just finished the final year of his contract. Both he and president of baseball operations Chris Young have said the conversations regarding his future will be had once the season is over.
Young lured Bochy out of retirement going into the 2023 season, and he ultimately led the Rangers to the first World Series championship in franchise history that first year. The two seasons that have followed have obviously been less than stellar.
“I've really had a great time,” Bochy said of his three years in Texas. “It's as much fun as I've had in the game. I said this when I came back, you have a deep appreciation when you're out of it, especially for three years. You realize what you have, how blessed you are to be doing what you're doing. It's been a lot of fun, and I still love it, I still enjoy it.”