Power or Speed? The Rangers' Real Offseason Question Is What Kind of Lineup They Want, Because Right Now They Don't Have Enough of Either

By Hank Dalton, RF Sports Radio Rangers voice

Rangers fans, the postseason started without Texas for the third straight October. Before the winter shopping starts, the club has to answer a simple question: what kind of lineup does it want to be?

The facts

Texas finished 80-82, one game behind Houston in the AL West, per Dallas Sports Journal. The two clubs were tied going into Game 162, and the Astros held the tiebreaker after winning the season series 9-4. The Rangers went 45-36 at home and 35-46 on the road. They've missed the playoffs every year since the 2023 title, going 78-84 in 2024 and 81-81 in 2025.

On SI's Rangers site, Matthew Nethercott argues the fix is slug. Texas hit 183 home runs in 2026, about league average, and posted a 103 wRC+ at home, 17th in baseball. From 2024 to 2026 the Rangers' home wRC+ is 98 with a .385 slugging percentage, against a 2026 league-average slugging mark of .400. He points to Brandon Nimmo, who slugged .436 with the Mets in 2025 and .405 in Texas in 2026, with his home runs falling from 25 to 14 in the same 155 games. He adds that Joc Pederson and Jake Burger, brought in as sluggers, didn't match the power they showed before Texas.

MLB.com's Kennedi Landry sees a different gap. Skip Schumaker wants a team built on speed, grit and athleticism, and he said "there's a health component" to why that didn't happen. Landry lists Josh Jung, Burger, Pederson and Corey Seager among the players who couldn't always take the extra base. Chris Young didn't commit to a rebuild or a retool. "If anything, we need to reshuffle our cards to some degree," he said. Landry also notes deGrom, Seager, Nimmo and Nathan Eovaldi all have no-trade protection, and the farm system has thinned out.

RF Sports Radio's take (opinion)

My take: Texas has to stop shopping for "power guys" and start shopping for good hitters who can also run. The Burger and Pederson bets were about raw pop, and the ballpark and the injury list didn't cooperate. Meanwhile, the manager wants to run, and the lineup is full of players who can't. You can't afford to be both a slugging team and a running team on this budget, but you have to be one of them. Right now the Rangers are neither, and that's how you end up a game short.

Here's how I'd do it: give Justin Foscue everyday at-bats after he hit .271/.332/.484 with 11 homers in 100 games, per DSJ, move Burger while he still has trade value, and spend the outside money on one athletic corner bat who gets on base. My call: Burger is traded before spring training, and the Rangers' biggest outside addition this winter is a hitter, not a pitcher. That's a prediction, not reporting.

What to watch next

Landry notes no coaching-staff changes had been announced more than a week after the season-ending press conference, so watch that first. Option decisions and free agency follow the World Series. For the money side, read our breakdown of the Rangers' $38.3 million arbitration class, and track every move on the Texas Rangers page.

Radio question: if you could add only one thing to this lineup, is it power or speed?

Sources: SI (Rangers) — If the Rangers want to return to the postseason, this has to change; MLB.com — Rangers' 5 biggest offseason questions; Dallas Sports Journal — Chris Young takes blame, outlines Rangers' 2027 offseason plan.