SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The Rangers finished 13-14 in Cactus League play in 2025 as they gear up for a bounceback season. There are five days until Opening Day, but spring isn¡¯t over just yet. Texas still has a pair of exhibitions against Kansas City at Globe Life Field on Monday and Tuesday.
So what¡¯s left to decide before the Rangers head back to Arlington?
¡°What we talked about as a staff a few nights ago in the coaches room is that we have this objective of winning,¡± said president of baseball operations Chris Young. ¡°We also have to weigh winning immediately versus the objective of winning over the course of the season. How to align those two is the challenge. I don't have perfect answers yet, but hopefully by Wednesday, we'll have a pretty good idea of what we're going to do.¡±
Rotation
There¡¯s not much more to write about the Rangers¡¯ rotation situation, with Cody Bradford and Jon Gray both sidelined to start the season. But in the final days before Opening Day, the Rangers still have a decision to make.
Adrian Houser (3.77 ERA in 14 ? innings this spring) was informed on Friday that he would not make the Opening Day roster, but Jack Leiter, Kumar Rocker and Patrick Murphy still remain in competition for the final two rotation spots. The recently signed Patrick Corbin is scheduled to throw a simulated game on Monday at Globe Life Field, but it will be unclear where he¡¯s at until after that.
¡°We have Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Tyler Mahle in the rotation,¡± Young said. ¡°We obviously have Jack and Kumar in competition right now. I can't tell you exactly what the last two spots in the rotation are going to look like at this point. I love the talent we have. There are going to be some bumps in the road with young pitchers. I get that. They've got to go through that at the big league level. We've got to balance those things with veteran players who know how to take the ball and go out and compete.¡±
Bullpen?
The rotation and bullpen situations are intertwined. Six spots in the bullpen are accounted for, Young explained: Chris Martin, Luke Jackson, Robert Garcia, Shawn Armstrong, Jacob Webb and Hoby Milner.
The final two spots could both be long relievers, like Dane Dunning, Gerson Garabito or even the aforementioned Murphy. Or one could be a long reliever and the other could be a guy with options remaining, like a Marc Church or Jacob Latz.
¡°These are the pieces of the puzzle that we, as a front office, have to figure out how this all comes together,¡± Young said. ¡°There's transactional rules that we have to think about in terms of options and lack of options and flexibility of the roster and preserving our depth. We're going to need way more than 13 pitchers over the course of the season, which is obvious. This is where I'm losing sleep right now, trying to figure out how to piece this all together and preserve the most depth possible so that we can hit the ground running and give this team every chance to win.¡±
Center field and final bench spots
Leody Taveras has a spot on this roster, Young confirmed. Evan Carter is still in competition, not just for a starting role in center field, but for a roster spot. Non-roster invitees Kevin Pillar and Sam Haggerty are still in competition to make the roster after impressive springs as well.
What the Rangers do with Carter, who missed most of last season with a back injury, will likely inform the rest of the bench as well.
¡°We haven't seen the best version of Evan yet,¡± Young said. ¡°He missed time last year. It's hard to just step back in and regain your timing, rhythm and tempo while facing the best players in the world. We want to put Evan in positions to be successful. He's shown flashes this spring, but when you miss time, it's hard to make up for that. We've got some decisions there. We know he's going to impact our team, but we¡¯re not ready to commit to whether that's Opening Day or not.¡±