2025, is officially here and the Texas Rangers will look to return to glory and participate in Bruce Bochy’s “every other year trend”.

However, just like many Americans, the Rangers have some resolutions they want to make as the calendar turns to the new year.

Let’s break down five New Year’s resolutions that Texas needs to make happen.

1. Sign A Closer And Another Back-End Reliever – It’s not often you can wrap up a New Year’s resolution in January, but the Rangers can get this one done pretty quickly.

The Rangers bullpen revamp has been no joke as Texas has added the likes of Jacob Webb, Holby Milner, Shawn Armstrong, Robert Garcia, Luis Curvelo, and others on minor league deals.

Although, the most important pieces are still out there in the open market as we head towards Spring Training.

We know that Texas has held at least one meeting with Arlington native and Red Sox reliever Chris Martin.

Martin had a 3.45 ERA with Boston in 2024 and pitched for the Rangers in 2018 and part of 2019 before they sent him to the Braves in exchange for Kolby Allard.

Reuniting with Martin could see him become the Rangers’ “8th-inning guy”.

As for the most important role of the bullpen, the closer, Texas has multiple options on the Free Agent side of things.

Most notably, the Rangers would like to resign all-star Kirby Yates who posted a 1.17 ERA with 33 saves in 61.2 IP last season.

2 Stay Healthy – Just about every MLB team will have “stay healthy” atop their New Year’s resolutions but none more than the Rangers.

With players like Evan Carter, Josh Jung, Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, and others missing time at some point last season, the Rangers were without several key players for much of the season.

deGrom and Eovaldi being the 1-2 punch at the top of the Texas rotation, how effective the group is could be entirely dependent on how many starts those two make.

Jung and Carter played a combined 96 games last season and that won’t work this season if Texas wants to return to the playoffs.
Health is already off to a good start in 2025 for the Rangers as Carter (Back), Adolis Garcia (knee), and Corey Seager (sports hernia) will all be ready to go by Opening Day.

3 Hit The Fastball – Last season, the Texas Rangers SLUGGED, not hit… slugged just .394 against the fastball.

This season with Justin Vele and Donnie Ecker reunited to lead the offense, they will no doubt have to be better.

The additions of Joc Pederson and Jake Burger should help astronomically on that front and help lengthen the Rangers lineup in 2025.

On paper, Texas will feature one of the best batting orders in all of baseball but any success they will have starts with hitting the fastball.

4. Get 20 or more starts from Jacob deGrom – Since the pandemic in 2019, Jacob deGrom has not made 20 or more starts.

In just four of his 11 MLB seasons, Jacob deGrom has made 30 or more starts.

Seeing deGrom hit thirty would be a dream come true but coming off a second Tommy John surgery, that number seems like a reach.

20 is a number that is very realistic and allows for some wiggle room. In just four starts last season deGrom posted a very strong 1.69 ERA in just 10.2 IP last season.

We know that when healthy and on the top of his game, deGrom is the best pitcher in all of baseball.

Texas won’t really need him to be that but the closer he can get the better.

5 See Wyatt Langford take a year two leap – In September of last season, Wyatt Langford was the best player in baseball not named Ohtani.

In September/October, Langford slashed .300/.386/.610 with 8 home runs and 20 RBI.

Asking Langford to be that player for a whole year would probably be a stretch but after playing 134 games last season, we already saw the in-season improvements Langford made.

If Langford is anywhere close to what he was in September, the Rangers have that much more of a dangerous lineup.