Twas the Night before Opening Day

By Kasey Jarvis

Picture via Texas Rangers

It’s here! The MLB 2025 regular season is upon us, Rosters have been named

Opening day starters announced, new foods have surfaced and it’s just about Baseball Time in Texas!

Tomorrow, the Rangers will call upon Nathan Eovaldi to make his second straight opening-day start. The Alvin, Texas native is coming off resigning with the Rangers in the offseason, inking a three-year, 75-million dollar deal with the ballclub to come back. 

The Rangers have revamped and reloaded this offseason bringing in Sluggers Joc Pederson and Jake Burger, 2 guys who can crush anything that crosses the plate. Still, they most importantly will help improve the Rangers numbers vs the fastball and provide protection for some of the bigger guys throughout the lineup. They also added some catching depth in Kyle Higashioka who’s coming off a career year slugging 17 Long balls including another 3 in the playoffs with the Padres. 

Along with that, the bullpen has always been a problem for Texas so they decided an overhaul was needed. The Rangers have brought in LHP’s Robert Garcia and Hoby Milner along with RHP’s Jacob Webb, Chris Martin, and Luke Jackson to hopefully solve the problem and bring Bruce Bochy some arms he can trust in the later innings of the games.

The concern for the Rangers is also health, last year the Rangers were badly bruised and dinged up with injuries. Degrom, Jung, Carter, Gray, Bradford, and Seager are just a handful of names who saw time on the IL which had a big impact on the ballclub. This year Bradford is already out with arm troubles and Jon Gray is sidelined for the same 4-6 week span after being hit by a compacted in spring so the Rangers depth and toughness will be put to the test way earlier than anyone had imagined and will be a true testament to where the Rangers will be at come October. 

Overall this is a big season for Texas. From big marks returning to healthy form like Jacob DeGrom and Josh Jung, to young guns looking to make a name for themselves like Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker. CY and company feel the time is now and what they’ve put together will vault the Rangers to the top of the West and hopefully back into a World Series contender this season.