The Texas Rangers were World Series champions in 2023. A year later, they finished with a 78-84 record, missing the postseason by eight games. World Series champions to postseason afterthoughts in one year.

But just as quickly as things can plummet downward, they can be revived. The Rangers can make it back to the postseason in 2025, but it won’t be through luck. They will need to be active in the free-agent market and in the trade market. They showed in 2024 that their roster just wasn’t going to be good enough to win another World Series, but the beautiful thing with sports is that you can improve your team a ton over the offseason.

The Rangers will need to be big spenders this Winter. These three free agents would be a huge step in the right direction towards putting the 2023 World Series champs back in the postseason in 2025.

The very first thing that any logical professional sports organization needs to do in free agency is prioritize their own upcoming free agents. The Rangers have a few key names that are headed for the open market this winter and their front office should look to get ahead of the curve and bring these players back before their market really heats up.

The big two names to look at for the Rangers are right handed pitchers Kirby Yates and Nathan Eovaldi.

Texas GM Chris Young has spoken in the past about how much Eovaldi means to the organization. The front office will absolutely do everything in their power to see him back in a Rangers uniform in 2025 and it’s the right thing to do. He was the best starter on their staff last season, and he will likely look to be the number two on the staff, behind deGrom, in 2025.

Yates was the team’s shutdown closer. He tossed 61.2 innings while holding a 1.17 ERA and 0.83 WHIP on his way to 33 successful saves. Yates was a key part of a lot of Rangers wins and bringing him back would give them another year or two of a secure closer.

2. Bringing in Jesse Winker would make a ton of sense for the Rangers

What the Rangers were missing last year were impact bats. Heading into the winter, the front office will have the tough task of finding some impact bats for relatively cheap. This means they likely won’t be able to go acquire names like Alex Bregman, Juan Soto and Cody Bellinger. With that in mind, the easiest way to find relatively cheap bats that can play above their pay grade is by finding rhe best platoon bats on the market.

Jesse Winker is set to be one best left handed platoon bats on the market this offseason. Winker has the ability to play outfield, but given the Rangers lack of a consistent DH, Winker could slot in as a DH against right handed pitching.

On his career, Winker is slashing .276/.379/.462 with 81 home runs and nearly as many walks as he has strikeouts. He saw his best years with the Cincinnati Reds, but has since revived his career this season with the Nationals and Mets.

Winker is set to garner some serious attention on the free agency market as one of the premier platoon outfielders in free agency. The Rangers need to be one of the top teams in the market to acquire him.

As much as the Rangers need to focus on getting their own free agents back and adding cheap platoon options, attacking free agency solely like that will have them missing the postseason again in 2025. While these are two very important aspects of putting together a competitive team in 2025, the Rangers are going to need to make at least one solid sized splash this offseason.

The top target for the Rangers this offseason should be the switch hitting slugger, Anthony Santander of the Baltimore Orioles. Santander is coming off a career year in which he slashed .235/.308/.506 with 44 home runs and 25 doubles. This comes a year after he tallied a career high 41 doubles and 95 RBIs.

The Rangers are going to need to add some sort of serious bat to their lineup if they want to put themselves back in the postseason in 2025. The Astros and Mariners will both look to be very aggressive this offseason, so the Rangers need to at least match their aggressiveness if they want a chance to be competing for the division and for a postseason spot in 2025. Texas has the talent at the top of the organization, but they need a few more key pieces if they want to win like they did in 2025.