One month from now, the Texas Rangers will open the 2025 season against the Boston Red Sox at Globe Life Field.

With things well underway in Surprise, we’re starting to better understand what the Opening Day roster will look like.

Let’s take another slightly less early stab at projecting the Rangers’ initial squad.

Catchers (2) Jonah Heim, Kyle Higashioka – Ever since Kyle Higashioka’s introductory press conference, it’s been pretty clear what the Rangers catching situation will look like.

Instead of a traditional 1,2, the Rangers’ catching room will be more of a 1A and 1B. One of the bigger early season storylines will be who can grab hold of the 1A spot.

1st Baseman (1) Jake Burger – While Burger may be the only traditional first baseman on the roster, he could end up being far from the only one to get playing time there.

Early on in the Spring, we’ve seen Joc Pederson getting some regular reps at first after playing there a bit with Arizona last season.

Super utility man Josh Smith has also played there during games this week.

2nd Baseman (1) Marcus Semien – Unlike first base, Marcus Semien will be just about the only one playing second base for the Rangers this season.

It won’t be a full 162 for Semien in 2025, as Bruce Bochy said that he would like to get his captain some more days off.

However, knowing Semien, that will be a tough task for Bochy.

Shortstop (1) Corey Seager – If the Rangers want to get back to the promised land, Corey Seager will once again be at the forefront of it.

Seager enters camp fully healthy, unlike 2024, and will look to return to his MVP level from of 2023.

3rd baseman (1) Josh Jung – Thus far, Josh Jung has yet to have a healthy season in the Major Leagues.

We know what he can do when on the field, and if he can stay healthy, the Rangers’ offense will add some much-needed slug, which they lacked last season.

Outfielders (4) Wyatt Langford, Evan Carter, Adolis Garcia, Leody Taveras – Last weekend, the Rangers signed veteran outfielder Kevin Pillar, complicating the outfield roles.
Signing Pillar certainly makes trading Leody Taveras easier, but not necessarily more likely. Throughout the offseason, the Rangers saw lots of interest in Taveras but turned things down every time.

As long as Taveras is on the team, he will have a spot, and his role in 2025 may be larger than most think.

Designated Hitter (1) Joc Pederson – The majority of Joc Pederson’s at-bats could come at DH, but don’t quite limit him to that.

First base and the outfield are very realistic places for Pederson to get a decent amount of playing time.

However, Pederson’s signing signals that the Rangers want to see their production from the DH spot rise.

Starting Pitchers (5) Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Tyler Mahle, Cody Bradford, Jon Gray – Despite being in a battle for the fifth starter position according to most people. Jon Gray wants to pitch 200 innings with 200 strikeouts.

Gray could end up at the back end of a rotation that features one of if not the best 1-2 punches in baseball with Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi.

Tyler Mahle and Cody Bradford will slot into the middle as they both look to complete full seasons after being riddled with injuries last year.

At some point, Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter will factor into this rotation in some way, shape, or form.

However, for now, the Rangers may go with this experienced rotation to begin things in 2025.

Relievers (8) Shawn Armstrong, Jacob Webb, Chris Martin, Robert Garcia, Holby Milner, J.T. Chargois, Dane Dunning, Jacob Latz – Seeing how the bullpen is managed early on may be the biggest early season storyline early on.

Chris Martin will likely get the first shot at being the closer as he could take that role for the first time in his big league career.

We know that Robert Garcia will be pitching in leverage as he and Holby Milner give the Rangers some strong left-handed arms.

JT Chargois is a non-roster guy who could make an impact, and there could even be room for more than just him.