This Incredible Rangers 60-Game Statistic May Not Bode Well for 2026

The Texas Rangers have done something really strange four of the last five seasons. The outlier is obvious.

Texas Rangers right fielder Brandon Nimmo (24) celebrates with shortstop Ezequiel Duran,. | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

The Texas Rangers are preparing for Game 2 of their three-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night. But there's something more important afoot.

The Rangers enter the game 29-31. They're 60 games into the season, more than one-third of the way through the campaign. While they're under 500, they are still within striking distance of the top of the American League West, 2.5 games back of the Seattle Mariners.

It’s a mediocre division race and if the Rangers can string several good weeks together, they can take control of the race. Texas has won four straight games entering Tuesday’s action.

They enter the game trying to buck a trend in four of the last five seasons, a strange one that underscores the franchise’s mediocrity — with one notable exception.

The Texas Rangers at 60

First career back-to-back saves for Jacob Latz 🫡 pic.twitter.com/JgbgePNwxQ

— Rangers Sports Network (@RangersSNtv) June 2, 2026

SleeperRangers on X (formerly Twitter) pointed it out and a check of baseball-reference confirmed it. In four of the last five seasons (2022-26), the Rangers have the same record through 60 games — 29-31.

The outlier, of course, is 2023, the year the Rangers won their first World Series. That team was 40-20 after 60 games. Looking at where those teams were at this point in the season is also instructive, especially when comparing these Rangers to the previous four seasons. Below is the 60-game record, where Texas stood in the standings at that time and where it finished the season.

In 2022: 29-31, 7.5 games behind in AL West; 69-94, 38 games out of AL West.

In 2023: 40-20, 4.5 games up in AL West; 90-72, tied for AL West (Houston won higher seed).

In 2024: 29-31, 4.5 games behind in AL West; 78-84, 10.5 games behind in AL West.

In 2025: 29-31, 4.0 games behind in AL West; 81-81, nine games behind in AL West.

In 2026: 29-31, 2.5 games behind in AL West;

One thing is clear. In the five-year sample, compared to the other three years in which the Rangers were 29-31, Texas has never been closer to the top of the division than it this season. Plus, the Rangers had a 4.5 game lead in 2023 and lost it down the stretch, giving up the higher seed give to the AL West champion due to a tiebreaker and being sent on the road to a wild card series with Tampa Bay. Rangers fans know how that turned out.

This is certainly one of those unique baseball stats. Rangers fans can look at it as more of the same. Or those same fans could look at the slim gap between the Rangers and the Mariners and be more optimistic. Once is coincidence. Twice is a trend. Four times is a trend the Rangers need to break.