The Texas Rangers shook up the MLB world when they traded for MacKenzie Gore last week. They ended up trading five prospects for the young lefty, headlined by their 2025 first-round pick Gavin Fien.
By surrendering five prospects for Gore, the Rangers made one thing clear: they’re done waiting.
Texas Rangers in Win-Now Mode After MacKenzie Gore Trade
Adding to a Strength
The Rangers are adding Gore to a pitching staff that had an MLB-best 3.47 ERA last year. It is headlined by Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom.
Eovaldi is coming off a year where he posted a 1.73 ERA and had 129 strikeouts in 130 innings while posting a 4.3 WAR. He would have been an All-Star, but he missed a few games due to injury. Despite missing that time, he was still able to win 11 games.
DeGrom was impressive in his own right. He won the American League Comeback Player of the Year after working his way back from Tommy John surgery. He was also an All-Star and pitched the most innings in his career since 2019.
In 2025, deGrom pitched to a 2.97 ERA in 172 2/3 innings with 185 strikeouts. He posted a 2.9 WAR with 12 wins and showed that he is still one of the best pitchers in baseball.
Gore will likely slot into the third spot in the rotation. This will put less pressure on him and could lead to him being more consistent throughout the year instead of having the pressure of being the team’s ace.
Mackenzie Gore makes the Rangers instant contenders if he pitches to his potential
Presented by @SeatGeek pic.twitter.com/iU5oCkcGCy
— Chris Rose Sports (@ChrisRoseSports) January 27, 2026
Back End of Rotation
With Gore coming in, that will push Jack Leiter into the fourth spot in the rotation. The former second overall pick out of Vanderbilt had a bit of a breakout year last year. He was thrust into the starting rotation last year due to injuries and delivered.
Leiter posted a 3.86 ERA in 151 2/3 innings with 148 strikeouts. He put up 0.4 WAR with 10 wins and 10 losses. Those numbers don’t jump off the page, but they are big improvements from the 0-3 record with 8.83 ERA that he posted in 2024.
The Rangers are hoping that their young righty can build upon last year and continue to improve.
The last rotation spot will come down to Jacob Latz or Kumar Rocker. Latz was good last year, starting out as a long reliever before making some starts with a 2.84 ERA in 85 2/3 innings with 76 strikeouts.
Rocker had a rougher go of it as he moved between the MLB and Triple-A. He struggled to find his rhythm with a 5.74 ERA in 64 1/3 innings with 56 strikeouts. He went 4-5 and -1 WAR.
Needing Improvement
The Rangers’ offense was pretty much the opposite of the pitching side, as they were 26th in batting average, slugging, and on-base percentage. They had multiple disappointing players, but they have tried to improve.
The Rangers parted ways with fan favorites Adolis García, Marcus Semien, and Jonah Heim after disappointing years. They brought in Brandon Nimmo and Danny Jansen to fill the holes in the corner outfield and at catcher.
Nimmo is coming off a year with a slash line of .262/.324/.436 with 25 home runs. That is a big upgrade over García with his line of .227..271/.394 with 19 home runs.
Jansen is a defense-first catcher, but still managed to outperform Heim with a slash line of .215/..321/.399 with 14 home runs compared to Heim’s .213/..271/.332 with 11 home runs.
Semien, García, and Heim were all below league average according to OPS+, while Nimmo was at 114 OPS+ and Jansen was at 101 OPS+.
The team will also need improvements from the guys last year that are still around, specifically Jake Burger, Josh Jung, and Joc Pederson. All of them had down years, especially Pederson, as he slashed .181/.285/.328 last year.
He was expected to be a power-hitting DH for Texas, but he couldn’t find his swing all year, dealing with rough stretches like an 0-for-41 one.
If the Rangers can get those three to improve and get good contributions from Nimmo and Jansen, then this offense could turn it around.
The Last Word
The acquisition of MacKenzie Gore shows that the Rangers think that they can compete, and adding to the pitching staff will give them a great chance to compete. They will need the new pieces on the offense to hit and need some bounce-back years from some of their returning players.
Main Photo Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports