When the regular season ends, the Texas Rangers will barely miss the American League playoffs. With Rangers manager Bruce Bochy considering retirement this winter, falling short of the postseason is disappointing. Injuries to Nathan Eovaldi and Corey Seager played a big part in the collapse, but they are not the only ones at fault. Robert Garcia and others have underperformed.

Texas finishes its season with three games against the Cleveland Guardians. The Rangers are trying to play spoiler for a playoff contender now that they cannot make it themselves. Regardless of how the series goes, Texas enters the offseason with some major questions to answer. However, the team will be haunted by what-ifs as it prepares to attack free agency.

Despite their struggles this season, the Rangers have had quite a few bright spots. For one, Jacob deGrom put together his first healthy season in years for Texas, giving the team one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball. He and Eovaldi formed one of the best one-two punches on the pitcher’s mound. Had they made the playoffs, they would have been the best duo in the field.

The Rangers will be one of a few AL teams to finish around .500 and miss the playoffs. For a squad that entered the season with its sights set on a return to the World Series, that is simply unacceptable. Texas won a championship back in 2023. The Rangers have not played in a single playoff game since then, placing them in a unique place in MLB history.

From injuries to a struggling bullpen, Texas fans can dissect the season and point out multiple weak points. However, the end result is the same. The Rangers had a good team on paper that could not put it together in 2025.

Texas’ stars dropped like flies down the stretch thanks to injuries

Eovaldi proved his stardom throughout the 2023 playoffs. He was the ace of a pitching staff that cruised to a championship. Since that run, he has maintained his dominant form, putting together great seasons in both 2024 and 2025. Despite missing out the All-Star Game this summer, the Rangers made sure to reward the ace for another elite season on the mound.

Eovaldi’s injury threw a massive wrench into Texas’ season. Unfortunately for Bochy, he was unable to get the team back on track. The Rangers fell down the standings, even though deGrom stepped up and filled his teammate’s shows without skipping a beat. The rest of the starting rotation could not do the same, and Texas’ offense was not good enough to pick up the slack.

On paper, the Rangers have a formidable offense. However, Seager’s injury started a tragic trend. He went out, followed closely by Marcus Semien, and both are still on Texas’ injured list. Without their stars to lead the way, Bochy has had to ask too much of Wyatt Langford and everyone else. If they had stayed healthy, the sky was the limit for a talented Rangers roster.

Texas’ bullpen shot the team in the foot throughout the entire season

One of the biggest problems Bochy has dealt with this season was his bullpen. Garcia lost games for Texas throughout the year, failing to secure saves in tight matchups. If he had been a bit better than league average, the Rangers would have had a great chance to be in the playoff field. Unfortunately, he could not figure things out, leaving Texas at a massive disadvantage.

The Rangers traded for Phil Maton to relieve the pressure from Garcia’s shoulders. The former St. Louis Cardinal was serviceable, but Bochy went with Shawn Armstrong as his closer down the final stretch of the regular season. If the Rangers were going to make a late push, they could not afford to lose leads late in games. Unfortunately, that is exactly what crippled the team.

Texas let Jose Leclerc leave the team last offseason. If the Rangers front office could make that choice again knowing what happened without him, they would have paid to keep him. Instead, Bochy had to defend his bullpen as it stumbled through starts. As a team, Texas had just 37 saves entering the final weekend. That is a bottom-ten mark, the lowest of any playoff contender.

The Rangers might have wasted the final season of Bruce Bochy’s career

Bochy said at the beginning of the season that he would not make a choice on his retirement until his year was over. Unfortunately, it is ending far sooner than he expected back in the spring. He did not lean one way or the other as his season wraps up. If this is his last season, it is a disappointing way for one of the best managers of all time to end his career.

If Bochy stays, his team is primed for a comeback. Eovaldi is going to be with the Rangers for the foreseeable future. However, the staff around him may not be as good as it was in 2025 ever again. Given his extensive injury history, deGrom cannot guaranteed another healthy season. Texas brought in Merrill Kelly at the trade deadline to give the rotation another strong starter.

The Rangers went from the top of the mountain to the middle of the pack very fast. Texas has plenty of things to blame for missing the playoffs for the second straight season. The best they can hope for is improved health, some upgrades in the bullpen, and that Bochy decides to end his career on a high note instead of going into retirement quietly.