PHILADELPHIA – Not to mix up our biblical metaphors too much, but the Rangers have just spent 40 days and nights walking around the desert only to face the next upcoming potential calamity: An epic flood of quality opponents and elite pitchers.
Welcome to season 55 of Rangers baseball. You won’t have to wait long to find out if this edition really is different from the last two.
On Thursday, when the season opens at at 3:05 p.m. CT in Philadelphia, the Rangers will face one of baseball’s semifinalists last season. They will square off against NL Cy Young runner-up Christopher Sanchez. That’s only the opening act. It only gets harder.
Over the first 40 games, a quarter of the season, the Rangers face the two-time defending world champs, three other series against teams that were among last year’s Final Four and play more games on the road than at Globe Life Field. In that stretch, they play exactly three games against teams that lost 90 or more games last year; those three are against Pittsburgh, which likely means a date with Paul Skenes.
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And speaking of the NL Cy Young winner Skenes, the pitching the Rangers face to start the year will be nothing short of exceptional. Beyond Sanchez, they are scheduled to face Jesus Luzardo, who finished eighth in the NL voting last year, on Sunday. It’s very possible that by Mother’s Day, the Rangers will have faced both 2025 Cy Young winners and pitchers who placed in the Cy Young voting in 2025 (there were only 16 starters, not including the Rangers’ Jacob deGrom, in that club). The Rangers’ opponents for the first 40 games had a composite .529 winning percentage in 2025, the equivalent of playing an 86-win team every night.
Everything the Rangers think they accomplished in Arizona will be taxed in the first quarter of the season.
So, how much will the Rangers learn about themselves in this period?
“It’s a tough question,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “I mean, we have a really tough — arguably the toughest — schedule. The first 40 games test our fight. They will test our depth. I think it will test the clubhouse culture right away, which I’m excited about.”
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The Rangers can only hope the lessons are a lot different than the ones they learned in the first 40 games last year. For that matter, truth be told, you could sum up the Rangers’ 2025 season just by looking back at opening day.
Against Boston’s Garret Crochet and company, the Rangers scored twice. They took only two walks, none after the second inning. Red Sox pitchers threw just 91 pitches over the last seven innings, just 33 over the last three. They went 1 for 5 with runners in scoring position. Yeah, the tone was set.
By the end of the first week, the Rangers still had not reached five runs in a game. They were hitting .192. And by the 40-game mark, the club had fired a hitting coach, sent its biggest offseason acquisition to the minor leagues, were seeing the second fewest pitches in baseball and had the third highest chase rate in the game. Story of the season.
As the Rangers enter 2026, there is something beyond hope to suggest that this offense won’t be nearly as wasteful as recent versions. The Rangers led the majors in walks (159) and on-base percentage (.372) over the spring. They were eighth in exit velocity and their chase rate dropped from 31.3% last spring to 25.2% this year, a drop of nearly 20%.
And on fastballs in the strike zone, pitches that should be punished the Rangers hit .310 with a .506 slugging percentage. Last spring: it was a pedestrian .276 and subpar .471.
The spring numbers about plate discipline suggest there was a more unified and refined approach and that the Rangers hit mistakes. That’s a good formula for spring or summer and especially for the fall, if it is sustainable.
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There is no better spokesman for the change than Jake Burger. He was acquired for 2025 to lead the slugging onslaught but became emblematic of all the Rangers issues. He chased way too much, walked way too little and was constantly trying to play catch up. A string of injuries only heightened the issue. If there is a bellwether for this offense, it will be Burger. He has played himself into the cleanup spots with a much better approach this spring.
“I feel like I am extremely process-oriented right now,” Burger said as spring came to a close. “You can get into a situation where you chase your tail sometimes trying to find a feel. But I’ve stuck to my guns with my routine and I feel really dialed in on process.
“I feel like I’m chasing a little less and my swing rate is down. Last spring, I probably swung four times in an at-bat. This year it feels like it’s more like two or three. And I feel like I’m getting to more leverage counts. And that was the focus after talking with [hitting instructor Justin] Viele and Skip. A lot of it was just getting back to being Jake Burger. I’m never going to be a 10% walk guy. I’m never going to be a guy who consistently hits ground balls through the four hole. But I can be myself and get off my best swing at pitches that I can do damage on.”
There are, of course, other key components to an offensive renaissance. Josh Jung and Joc Pederson, to name two. Both are also coming off subpar seasons. There is pressure on both to perform. And Evan Carter must show he can stay healthy and compete with left-handed pitchers.
Throughout spring, though, as a whole, the offense moved. An offense with a collective mindset can protect guys who are going through some slumps. Last year, though, it seemed like every player had his own approach to offense and instead it led to a season-long slump.
If the Rangers are going to create a different outcome, the team-first approach must remain rigid. And through the first 40 games, their ability to do so will be put to the ultimate test.
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