Texas Rangers Roster Projection Volume 1
The 2025 season for the Texas Rangers is still in its infancy stages with just over a week completed in spring training but expectations are high and for good reason. The veteran core of this team is as experienced and talented as just about any Rangers team in history and several youngsters are poised to build on promising beginnings to their career. The Rangers opened camp with 65 guys, the standard 40 man roster and 25 non-roster invitees, but cuts are coming in the near future and over the next month they’ll have to settle on their 26 man opening day roster. With that mind let’s take a look at the first roster projection.
Position Players
Barring any trades or injuries prior to opening day, this group sure looks to be fairly locked in. The biggest questions are in centerfield where Evan Carter and Leody Tavares are competing for the starting job but they’re both locks for the roster. Josh Smith, thanks to his versatility and strong 2024, is a lock as well. Zeke Duran is probably the only guy who could go either way given that he has options remaining and could be sent down. The argument for sending him down would be so that he could get regular playing time and the need for another bat who is more of a lefty killer. With Pederson, Carter and Tavares each having their own struggles against southpaws in the past, maybe keeping either Kevin Pillar (career OPS+ of 121 against lefties) or Sam Haggerty (career OPS+ of 143 against lefties) as your final bench option makes more sense.
- Jonah Heim
- Kyle Higashioka
- Joc Pederson
- Jake Burger
- Marcus Seimen
- Corey Seager
- Josh Jung
- Wyatt Langford
- Evan Carter
- Adolis Garia
- Leody Tavares
- Josh Smith
- Zeke Duran
Pitching Staff
This is where things get interesting because even though the staff also has its fair share of locks, there is still plenty of competition to be had in the bullpen. One caveat before covering all the arms is that Josh Sborz has already been placed on the 60 day IL so he’s not included in this projection.
Starting Rotation:
- Jacob deGrom
- Nathan Eovaldi
- Jon Gray
- Tyler Mahle
- Cody Bradford
While I’m sure the exclusion of Kumar Rocker will raise some eyebrows, I ultimately went with Bradford over him based on Bradford being a lefty and the need to limit Rockers’ innings over the course of the season. A rotation with zero lefties isn’t completely unheard of but they are rare so Bradford has that advantage in his back pocket. Rocker and Jack Leiter will certainly be needed at the big league level at various points this season but I think they both start in AAA.
Bullpen
- Chris Martin
- Jacob Webb
- Robert Garcia
- Dane Dunning
- Hoby Milner
- Luke Jackson
- Shawn Armstrong
- Jessie Chavez
While the bullpen has been a topic of consternation for Rangers fans this off season, there are a remarkable number of intriguing arms vying for spots here. Mason recently provided a detailed breakdown of several guys on this list, for those that missed it. There will be big league caliber guys who end up not making the club and for that reason I think it’s entirely possible that some of the final decisions may come down to whether the Rangers can stash a guy in the minors. That was the deciding factor for me with Luke Jackson and Jesse Chavez. Robby Ahlstrom, Gerson Garabito and Jack Leiter, among others, are creating some noise with solid starts to the spring but since they can be sent down without risk of losing them, earning a big league spot could be an uphill battle.
