Three Reasons to be Excited for Rangers Baseball in 2020

As the decade comes to a close, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about Rangers baseball going into 2020.

The Rangers are coming off the best decade in the history of the franchise. They collected five playoff berths, four division titles, and two American League pennants in the 2010's, boasting a 843-778 record over the past 10 seasons.

Maintaining a playoff-competitive window of seven seasons is very hard to do in baseball nowadays. Minus an injury-plagued 2014 season, the Rangers were one of the best teams in baseball from 2010-2016. The Rangers and its fans should be proud of that.

As a new era of Rangers baseball begins with new uniforms and a new ballpark, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about the future. Yes, the ball club is coming out of a short rebuild, but with the moves they've made this winter, they've shown fans there's reason to come to Globe Life Field next summer with optimism.

Globe Life Field

When word became official that the Rangers were getting a new ballpark, it was met with excitement and criticism. After all, the Rangers had a perfectly functioning ballpark with Globe Life Park that was very popular among fans.

Globe Life Park was a beautiful place to watch a baseball game, but it was also prone to attendance dips on afternoon games in June, July, and August. The heat was becoming a problem, not just among fans, but at luring free agents to Arlington, namely starting pitchers.

Despite how anyone feels about the situation, the Rangers will start playing baseball games in a retractable roof stadium. No more rain delays and no more 100-degree Sunday afternoon games.

The new ballpark hasn't helped attract any major free agents yet, which makes sense since it's yet to be seen how the ballpark will play yet. With money to spend in winters to come, maybe it will help bring big names to Arlington.

Speaking of money, Globe Life Field helps create a brand new revenue stream, giving the team more money to spend.

The Rangers will now have one of the most state-of-the-art facilities in baseball, and with a more intimate setting, it should be a better place to take in a baseball game, no matter what time of year.

A Stout Rotation

The Rangers have always been known as a team that can slug with anyone else in baseball. The list of the great hitters in the franchise's history goes on and on, but now as the Rangers turn the calendar over, the starting rotation looks to be the strength of the team.

The Rangers had only two spots in the rotation locked in when 2019 ended with Mike Minor and Lance Lynn. Both pitchers had phenomenal seasons in 2019, earning votes for the American League Cy Young award. Those are two great pitchers to start your rotation, but filling three spots in one offseason is a tall task.

Well, the Rangers did it with ease. They locked up Kyle Gibson early in the winter, then signed Jordan Lyles shortly before the Winter Meetings. Neither pitcher has been dominant in their careers, but both have quality stuff and would be a good 4-5 combination on just about any team in baseball.

The Rangers' focus has primarily been on addressing third base this winter, but in the meantime, they didn't hesitate to bolster the rotation even more. They sent their rotation from pretty good to great with the acquisition of two-time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber from the Cleveland Indians.

Kluber is coming off an injury-riddled season, but there's a lot of optimism that he can regain his stellar form that helped him finish in the top-three in the Cy Young voting four times with the Indians.

The rotation, on paper, is one of the best in the American League. The games still have yet to be played, but this rotation, on paper, is arguably the best the team has ever put together.

A Healthy Joey Gallo

Joey Gallo can hit the ball far. We know that. We've known that for a while now. After back-to-back 40+ homer seasons, expectations for Gallo in 2019 were to take a step in his development.

And boy, did he ever.

Gallo only played in 70 games in 2019 thanks to an oblique injury and a broken hamate bone that ended his season. In those 70 games, Gallo took drastic steps forward and became an All Star for the first time in his career.

Gallo became much more mature at the plate and stopped swinging at a lot of bad pitches he would in previous seasons. His batting average rose from .206 in 2018 to .253 in 2019, and it was even as high as .293 on May 21.

A full season of a healthy Joey Gallo, the new and improved version, is a superstar waiting to break out. It was extremely disappointing his 2019 campaign was cut short. He was on the verge of something special. The Rangers could even have their next superstar in 2020 in Gallo.

Or, the Rangers could acquire one from Colorado, but that has yet to be seen.

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