This story was originally published by Dead Spin
No team has successfully defended their World Series championship since the New York Yankees won three straight titles from 1998 to 2000.
Since then, the 2009 Phillies are the only team to reach the World Series a year after winning it all, but the Phillies fell to the Yankees in that year’s Fall Classic.
With that in mind, the Texas Rangers faced long odds of running it back before the season even started.
And, at times, the Rangers have appeared to be a team that is still in the midst of a World Series hangover after winning the franchise’s first championship in 2023.
Things aren’t looking overly promising for the Rangers to become the first team to repeat in more than two decades, either. They closed the first half strong but then dropped two of three games against the AL East-leading Baltimore Orioles to open the second half. However, they salvaged the series finale on Sunday and are still just five games back of the Houston Astros in the AL West division race.
“Every game is important,” said starter Andrew Heaney, who threw five scoreless innings Sunday. “I don’t want to sound cliche or like a broken record or whatever, but it really is. It’s just got to be one game at a time. We’ve got to go handle business.”
The Rangers’ first step is staying in the hunt for another week-plus to ensure they’re in the “buyers” category at the July 30 trade deadline. It helps that the Chicago White Sox, owners of baseball’s worst record, are coming to town for a four-game series starting Monday followed by a six-game road trip that starts at sub-.500 Toronto on Friday.
But the most important aspect for the Rangers’ repeat bid is the reinforcements expected to join for the stretch run, headlined by two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom (right UCL repair surgery), who is throwing off a mound and is on target for a late August return.
Right-hander Tyler Mahle (right UCL repair surgery) is further ahead of deGrom as Mahle is in the final stages of his rehab assignment. He could be an option for the Rangers later this month. Offensively, the Rangers are expected to see the returns of third baseman Josh Jung (right wrist) and outfielder Evan Carter (lower back soreness) in the coming weeks.
With so many potential weapons joining the club, is it reasonable to think the Rangers have a pathway to repeat? Absolutely, especially if they earn a postseason berth and are rolling out a rotation in October that features the likes of deGrom and Max Scherzer.
Is it likely? Time will tell, of course, but the oddsmakers don’t think so. The Rangers opened the second half with +6000 odds to win the World Series, according to ESPN Bet. There were 14 teams with better odds.
Still, it feels like the Rangers are being slept on. As stated, this is a team with reinforcements on the horizon as well as a favorable schedule to close the season, including 10 of the final 22 games against the AL West bottom-feeders in the Angels and A’s.
It’s not far-fetched to envision the Rangers getting hot at the right time.
As Scherzer told Rangers on SI late in the first half, “I still look across at the talent in this room and believe we can compete with anybody in this league.”
That mindset is shared by everyone in the clubhouse.
“We’re trending in the right direction,” second baseman Marcus Semien said during All-Star festivities. “We’ve got pitching coming. Scherzer is coming back. We’ve got a couple pretty good position players coming back too. So, once we get healthy and we’re all swinging the bat well, I think we’re a scary team.”
