Rangers' Bullpen Issues Cause Stagnation in Latest Power Rankings

The Texas Rangers just cannot figure it out this season.

Aug 16, 2025; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy (15) talks with the media in the dugout during batting practice before a game against the Toronto Blue Jays | Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images

After a quite disastrous 10-days of baseball, the Texas Rangers find themselves at No.15 in the latest power rankings by MLB.com's Will Leitch. Even after avoiding a sweep on Sunday against the Toronto Blue Jays and coming out of Rogers Centre with a 10-4 win, they are only 5-11 since the trade deadline; the worst in the American League.

For a minute, it looked like they were going to make a move in the wild card race. They found themselves well over .500 after taking a series against the New York Yankees -- who held the final wild card spot -- and were only a half-game behind them.

Since that point, though, they have been swept by the Philadelphia Phillies and dropped back-to-back series against the Arizona Diamondbacks and Blue Jays before losing Game 1 of their set against the Kansas City Royals on Monday.

Trouble in the Bullpen

Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

At the trade deadline the Rangers made a move to acquire both Phil Maton and Danny Coulombe to hopefully bolster their bullpen. Well, that has definitely not been the case as of late with either of them.

Between those two and Robert Garcia, it has been blown game after blown game durin this stretch. The series with the Diamondbacks should have been a sweep or at the very least a series win. Instead, Ketel Marte had back-to-back game-winning homers to kill any momentum Texas was building before heading to Toronto.

It was a same story against the Blue Jays. The Rangers had a 5-2 lead going into the eighth inning, and after how they had played all game, it looked like they were going to get off to a great start in the set. But a pair of costly walks and singles was the eventual dagger to their chances as they ended up losing 6-5.

The following contest was an even more pitiful outing by the entire pitching staff, which led to an eventual 14-2 blowout. The coaching staff put position player Rowdy Tellez in to finish out the last two innings. He had less earned runs (three) than both starter Patrick Corbin and reliever Jon Gray.

Danny Coulombe before the trade:
🚀 1.16 ERA
🚀 1.98 FIP

Danny Coulombe after joining the Rangers:
📉 6.35 ERA
📉 4.70 FIP#allfortx pic.twitter.com/lhyX2TAWIr

— Cooper deGrom (@skostyboi) August 16, 2025

Garcia might be 1-7 on the year with a 3.61 ERA, but in his last seven outings, his ERA has skyrocketed to 7.50 with a WHIP of 2.33. Maton and Coulombe are not much better. Maton has been used in eight games since joining the club and has gone 1-2 with a 7.04 ERA. Coulombe is slightly better as the only player to have an ERA less than 7.00.

The Rangers were looking for the veterans to stablize things in their relief staff, but following a brutal stretch of play, they have done more harm than good.