Among the 25 World Series champions since 2000, how did the 2023 Rangers land in this spot?
The 2023 World Series was not the first the Rangers had appeared in, but it’s not like the franchise had made a habit out of getting there, either.
They joined MLB in 1961 as the Washington Senators before moving to Texas for the 1972 season, switching from the AL East to the AL West in the process. They would not make it to the postseason for the first time until 1996, then again in ‘98 and ‘99, but didn’t make it past the Division Series in any of those appearances. It took until 2010 for Texas to reach the postseason again, but when they did, they made it all the way to the World Series before losing to the Giants, then miraculously got to the Fall Classic again in 2011, only to fall to the Cardinals. After missing the postseason from 2017 through 2022, the Rangers reached meaningful October baseball once more in 2023, and this time they — finally — won it all.
The Rangers could pitch, especially after acquiring Jordan Montgomery from the Cardinals mid-season: that gave them a rotation with Montgomery (2.79 ERA in 11 starts), Dane Dunning (3.70 ERA in 35 games and 26 starts) and Nathan Eovaldi (3.63 ERA in 25 starts), along with some slightly above-average arms in Jon Gray and Andrew Heaney. Impressive, considering that they started the year with Jacob deGrom but lost him to Tommy John after six starts, but picking up Max Scherzer at the deadline in addition to Montgomery for eight stretch-run starts helped them deal with that major loss.
The real strength of the team, other than an almost-weakness turned into depth through a couple of in-season trades, was the lineup. They had the top offense in the AL and second-best in the majors, and much of that credit belongs to the trio of Marcus Semien, Corey Seager and Adolis Garcia. Both Semien and Seager were in the AL MVP mix — but understandably lost to Shohei Ohtani — while Garcia slugged over .500 and led the team in homers, while trailing only the aforementioned Ohtani among AL hitters. Mitch Garver, in a part-time role, hit .270/.370/.500 as well, while shortstop Josh Jung posted a .781 OPS. While Seager was the clear standout that was head-and-shoulders even above Semien and Garcia offensively, like with the rotation, the lack of real holes was the key to the Texas attack. Nearly all of these hitters could hurt opposing pitchers, and they did.
The Rangers did not have an easy road to the World Series. They had to defeat the 99-win Rays in the AL Wild Card Series. The 101-win Orioles awaited them in the ALDS, but they were vanquished, too, in a three-game sweep. It took seven games to defeat the Astros, who, like Texas, went 90-72, but owned the tiebreaker and therefore became AL West champions. So while the 84-win Diamondbacks might come off as a weak World Series opponent, the Rangers were tested plenty before ever getting to the championship round.
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