What's Next for Rangers After Officially Being Eliminated From Playoff Contention?

Where do the Texas Rangers go from here?

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The Texas Rangers lost on Tuesday.

That's not a result that's been uncommon for this team the past week-and-a-half, as that defeat marked their eighth loss in a row after they had won six consecutive games to put themselves back into playoff contention.

The magic for the Rangers ran out in a major way, and now, they have officially been eliminated from playoff contention. While that was expected for much of the season based on how they had been performing, the reality of them not playing October baseball for two years in a row following their World Series championship in 2023 has materialized.

The 2023 World Champs will miss the postseason for the second year in a row pic.twitter.com/xm3BAPcA4o

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) September 24, 2025

There are a lot of questions this entire organization has to answer. The aggressive mindset was there this past winter when they signed Joc Pederson and Kyle Higashioka and traded for Jake Burger. That carried over into their trade deadline approach, where they became shocking buyers.

Will that continue this upcoming offseason? Texas was rumored to be looking to shed some payroll coming down the stretch of this campaign, so if the ownership group is going to become more cash conscious, then that could prevent them from addressing some of the issues they have on this roster.

But three things stand out when it comes to figuring out what's next for the Rangers as they finish out the rest of the 2025 campaign and head into this upcoming offseason. And the first has to do with who will be managing this team.

Will Bruce Bochy Retire?

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Bruce Bochy is a surefire Hall of Famer. He's also the first manager in the team's history to lead them to a World Series title. That makes his possible departure something the franchise has to figure out before they decide on anything else during the winter.

Bochy has been mum on his possible retirement at the end of this year. But with his contract ending at the conclusion of this season, then this would be a perfect exit point for the 70-year-old who has the sixth-most wins as a manager in Major League Baseball history.

If he does decide to call it a career, then 2023 NL Manager of the Year and current senior adviser for the Rangers' front office, Skip Schumaker, could be in the running to take over the job.

How Will Rangers Put Together Pitching Staff?

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Texas has two starting pitchers and six relievers set to become free agents at the end of this season. Considering this has been the best pitching staff in the majors on an ERA basis, that is a huge undertaking for the front office if they are going to replicate that success in 2026.

Beyond that, it's hard to rely on Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi to lead the rotation at this stage of their careers based on the injury histories they both have. Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker were the "aces in waiting," but they both have had some struggles in the early part of their MLB tenures.

Whether the front office leans into more of a youth approach with multiple highly-regarded arms in their farm system or goes after more established veterans will be seen. But it's something that has to be addressed this winter.

Could More Youth Be Coming?

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The Rangers have been blending some young players coming up the pipeline with their established stars. That worked in 2023, but the recipe has not resulted in anything fruitful in the two years since. Conventional wisdom would suggest some change in approach would come.

Corey Seager and Marcus Semien are under contract through 2031 and 2028, respectively. They are going to be leading this team for the foreseeable future because of that. But who becomes a cornerstone of the future alongside Wyatt Langford is hard to predict.

Evan Carter has been riddled by injuries. Josh Jung has had his struggles after coming back from his own injury. Cody Freeman didn't provide much in his debut season. And many of the team's top prospects are either pitchers or are just beginning their professional careers.

How president of baseball operations Chris Young fills out this roster will be interesting to see.