TEAM HISTORY
The Texas Rangers are an American professional baseball team based in Arlington, Texas, located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. They compete in the MLB as a member club of the AL West division. In 2020, they moved to the new Globe Life Field after having played at Globe Life Park in Arlington from 1994 to 2019. The team's name is shared with the law enforcement agency of the same name.
The franchise was established in 1961 as the Washington Senators, an expansion team awarded to Washington, D.C., after the city's first AL ballclub, the second Washington Senators, moved to Minnesota and became the Twins (the original Washington Senators played primarily in the National League during the 1890s). After the 1971 season, the new Senators moved to Arlington, and debuted as the Rangers the following spring.
In 2010, the Rangers advanced past the division series for the first time, defeating the Tampa Bay Rays. The team then won their first American League pennant after beating the New York Yankees in six games. In the 2010 World Series, the franchise's first, the Rangers fell to the San Francisco Giants in five games. They repeated as American League champions the following year, then lost the 2011 World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.
After a 60–102 season in 2021, their worst since 1973, the Rangers signed several free agents, including Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Marcus Semien and Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager, and they brought back former starting pitcher Martin Perez after three seasons away from the team. However, the team finished 68–94, good enough for fourth place in the AL West; they were also a franchise- and league-worst 15–35 in one-run games. The Rangers fired Chris Woodward on August 15, 2022, with Tony Beasley taking his place as interim manager for the rest of the year. Two days after Woodward's firing, the Rangers fired President of Baseball Operations (and former Rangers general manager) Jon Daniels, after six consecutive losing seasons. Chris Young, who was named general manager in 2020 to take over the role from Daniels, was named the new club president. On October 21, 2022, the Rangers hired three-time World Series winning manager Bruce Bochy. During the offseason, the Rangers signed longtime New York Mets starting pitcher Jacob deGrom to a five-year, $185 million contract.
On November 1, 2023, the Rangers won the World Series after defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games, achieving their first World Series championship in franchise history.