Texas Rangers Stumble Back Down Rankings After Brutal Road Trip

The Texas Rangers are falling back closer to the middle of the league after their poor week on the road.

Apr 9, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Texas Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien (2) attempts a double play after forcing out Chicago Cubs first baseman Michael Busch (29) during the fourth inning at Wrigley Field. | Patrick Gorski-Imagn Images

Just a week ago, the Texas Rangers were among the best teams in the league. Now, a tough road stretch has sent them tumbling back down.

Matt Snyder of CBS Sports recently updated their power rankings and the Rangers fell five spots back down to eighth place. Thigns could be worse, but they certainly don't want to make a habit out of 1-5 stretches.

Baseball can simply just be an unforgiving sport. One week, Texas looks back to their World Series contending form, then they face a couple of tough teams and all of a sudden they look to be back towards the middle of the league.

It’s hard to blame them for having run into the buzz saw that is the Chicago Cubs, though. They are one of the hottest teams in baseball.

Along with taking the series against the Rangers, they also came out on top versus the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres.

The other tough series loss came against the AL West rival Seattle Mariners via sweep. Both sides of the ball were struggling on the road there as Texas gave up more runs on Saturday alone than they scored in the entire set.

Veteran second baseman Marcus Semien had a very tough stretch as he went just 2-for-20 last week.

Semien really needs to figure things out at the plate as he has not really looked like himself dating back to last season.

One positive development on offense has been the return of third baseman Josh Jung. He posted a .400/.400/.800 slash line last week with a home run and five RBI. It was a 0.4 fWAR stretch for Jung, hard to complain about.

His continued growth will be something to monitor this year as the Rangers look for more players to lead them into the next few years.

On the mound, Hoby Milner has continued to look very strong in relief. He pitched three more scoreless innings and struck out four batters.

Milner was signed to a one-year, $2.5 million deal this offseason and that looks like it could be a real steal.

Kumar Rocker, on the other hand, needs to figure something else out. He has now essentially pitched as much as he did in his strong, albeit short debut last year.

Through 11.1 innings, he has a 7.94 ERA with 18 hits. A 1.941 WHIP will have him back down in the minors fairly soon.

Texas is back home this week to face the Los Angeles Angels and the Dodgers.