Expert Tabs Texas Rangers As Legitimate World Series Contender in 2025

The Texas Rangers disappointed in their quest to repeat as World Series in 2024, but one MLB expert says they are a legitimate contender to win it again in 2025.

Texas Rangers inflieder Corey Seager (5) high-fives teammates after his 2-run home run against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Surprise Stadium on Sunday, March 2, 2025. | Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

There is a lot of optimism surrounding the 2025 Texas Rangers after an utterly disappointing campaign last year in their quest to repeat as World Series champions.

Frankly, it's easy to see why. A lot of the club's veteran hitters are destined for positive regression to the mean, and contributions from a young core that consists of outfielders Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford along with starting pitchers Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter give this group a massive ceiling.

Oh yeah, and there's the return to health of Jacob deGrom, the unquestioned best pitcher of the past decade when he's able to stay healthy, too.

With all of this optimism surrounding the team, it comes as no surprise that another league expert joined the chorus when MLB.com's Mike Petriello offered some of the highest praise yet on Thursday.

In an article alongside Will Leitch drafting teams most likely to win the World Series, Petriello ranked the Rangers in the No. 5 spot. The duo filled the top four with different National League contenders, meaning that neither of them picked an American League team higher than Texas.

"Yeah, I know. I kind of can’t believe I did this either," Petriello wrote. "First off: I don’t care about last year’s 78-84 record. I’m looking at a 2025 version that’s added Joc Pederson and Jake Burger to the lineup, and also had Wyatt Langford looking for all the world like he figured something out in September – when he won the AL Rookie of the Month and the AL Player of the Month – and should have a lot more Kumar Rocker in the rotation. Oh: And Jacob deGrom is back, and healthy,"

Petriello alludes to the veteran additions in Pederson and Burger that promised to offer more pop to a lineup that was uncharacteristically lacking it a season ago.

Star shortstop Corey Seager was the only established player to perform up to his level, as Marcus Semien, Adolis Garcia, and Jonah Heim all finished with OPS marks below .700.

While it may come as a surprise for an expert to draft the Rangers ahead of the New York Yankees in this exercise, Petriello's pick is actually in line with PECOTA projections.

The popular predictive model pegs the Rangers as the top team in the AL, with an estimated win total of 90.1 and a 7.8% chance to win it all in November.