Something changed at Globe Life Field in 2025, and it greatly affected the Texas Rangers.
The last two seasons have not been kind to the Texas Rangers after the club won its first World Series in 2023. Since then, the Rangers have missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons.
Texas produced a .500 record in 2025, and two metrics indicate that the team had an elite pitching staff and a low-ranking offense. However, those numbers may be fool's gold, and ESPN’s David Schoenfield explains why in his recent article titled “2026 MLB predictions: One stat to make or break every AL team.”
Schoenfield starts by assigning the number 83 to the Rangers, here’s why:
“A weird thing happened to Globe Life Field in 2025: Nobody could hit there,” he wrote. “The Statcast park factor ranked Globe Life tied with Seattle's T-Mobile as the worst-run scoring park in the majors with a park factor of 83 (meaning about 17% fewer runs were scored there).”
“Its home run factor ranked higher only than St. Louis and Pittsburgh. Globe Life ranked below average in runs in 2024 (but above average in home runs) and as one of the BEST offensive parks in 2023, when it ranked third in runs and first in home runs.”
This metric provides context for Schoenfield’s next point.
“As a result, the Rangers ranked 22nd in the majors in runs scored and first in fewest runs allowed, making it look like they had a bad offense and a great pitching staff. The truth is probably more in the middle (the Rangers were 17th in runs scored on the road and 16th in runs allowed). The way Globe Life played, it makes it tricky to evaluate how individual players performed -- and to determine what the Rangers need to address the offseason.”
“They probably need to upgrade both the offense and the pitching staff (and they have a bunch of starts in the rotation to replace anyway) to get back into playoff contention.”
Now, this is not to say the Rangers are lacking incredibly capable arms, because that is hardly the case. They still have Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi in their rotation who, despite nearing the twilight of their careers, just produced elite numbers.
Despite the Rangers posting more average numbers on the road, their pitchers allowed the fewest earned runs in Major League Baseball (557). But, as Schoenfield highlights, the club probably needs upgrades on the mound and in the batters’ box.
The acquisition of Brandon Nimmo in the Marcus Semien trade should provide an offensive boost, and Corey Seager might get back to higher production after a down year. Maybe Globe Life Field will tilt back toward normalcy as well.