The Texas Rangers and Globe Life Field Are MLB's Most Bizarre Story of 2025
Has anyone else noticed Globe Life Field ranks dead last in slugging (.328) just two years after producing more home runs (256) than any other venue?
Or that the Texas Rangers are on pace to hit and allow a combined total of 120 home runs at home in 2025, compared to hitting 143 dingers at home during their championship season?
Before dipping so much as a toe into the controversial waters here, let's preface this dive into the Texas Rangers' slugging—the excess en route to a 2023 World Series; the dearth of it in 2025—with a great big: I'm not saying, I'm just saying.
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And what I may or may not be saying is that something super weird has been happening with the baseballs in Rangers' home games—either this season, two years ago, when they won it all, or frankly, a little bit of both.
No, we're not talking about The Athletic's report from earlier this month that there is more drag on this year's baseball, causing fly balls to travel four feet less than they would have in years past. That's a league-wide situation, and one that might have been a bit overblown.
Home run rates on fly balls and per nine innings are almost identical to what they were in both 2022 and 2024. (At any rate, Cal Raleigh, Aaron Judge and plenty of others clearly don't mind this year's baseballs.)
Rather, we're talking specifically about games played at the Rangers' stadium, which has inexplicably transformed from a perfectly average home run venue in 2021 to a launching pad in 2023 to a pitchers' paradise in 2025.
Where Did It Come From?
As noted above, there were more home runs hit at Globe Life Field (256) than at any other venue during the 2023 regular season. The .459 slugging percentage there ranked second only to Coors Field, as did the 5.22 ERA against pitchers.
Though Texas had an unbelievable 11-0 record on the road during its October run, the Rangers' bats greatly benefited from the home cooking during the regular season. [There were also 3.17 home runs on average in Texas's six home postseason games compared to 2.45 on the road.]
As a team, they hit 53 more homers at home than on the road, slugging 84 points better (.495) at Globe Life Field than elsewhere (.411). Meanwhile, Rangers pitchers allowed 28 more home runs and a slugging percentage 35 points higher at home than they did on the road.
They ended up winning a bunch of slugfests at home, going 50-31 compared to a sub-.500, 40-41 record on the road.
But so what, right?
Some parks are just more homer-friendly than others, aren't they?
Take Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park, for instance. From 2021-24, there were a combined total of 924 home runs (2.85 per game) in Reds home games, while Reds road games produced just 663 dingers (2.05 per game). That's a home/road split of more than 65 homers per season. GABP gonna GABP.
If "the home runs are just bigger down in Texas" is your justification for those 2023 Rangers splits, though, how do you explain 2021? There were 11 more home runs hit in Rangers road games than home games, with a .399 slugging percentage at GLF that ranked 19th in the majors.
Or what about last season? With virtually the exact same lineup and arguably a worse pitching staff than 2023, games at Texas in 2024 resulted in 72 fewer home runs than the previous year, with slugging in games at Texas down to .379 and tied for 26th place. As was the case in 2021, there were a few more home runs hit in Rangers road games (190) than home games (184).
Where Did It Go?
However, it wasn't until this year that things really started to smell fishy.
We're now exactly at the midpoint of Texas's 2025 campaign, and the slugging at Globe Life Field has been unfathomably nonexistent.
Rangers and their foes have combined to slug an MLB-worst .328 in those 39 games. Not only is that down a staggering 131 points from two years ago, but if maintained through the second half, it would be the worst single-season slugging percentage at a particular venue (min. 10 games) since Dodger Stadium produced a .325 SLG in 1989.
On the road, though, the Rangers are slugging .385 and allowing (even after Jacob deGrom's gem on Wednesday) a .380 slugging percentage, which is pretty similar to their marks of .411 and .388, respectively, two years ago and to the MLB-wide average of .399 this season.
So...
Well...
Inquiring minds are wondering...
Were the balls juiced at Globe Life Field in 2023?
It's more than a little strange that:
A) There were 3.16 home runs hit per game played at Globe Life Field in 2023, compared to 2.16 in Rangers games played elsewhere that season. Aforementioned launching pad, Great American Ball Park, has yet to produce a single-season split that drastic in its more than two decades of existence in Cincinnati. Even Coors Field hasn't done it since 2002, which was the first year MLB started using humidors to try to combat Colorado's preposterous home/road splits from 1996-2001.
B) All eight Rangers who made at least 200 plate appearances both at home and on the road in 2023 had a higher slugging percentage at home than on the road. Seven of them did so by at least 57 points. Five of the eight slugged at least 113 points better at home.
C) Four of Shohei Ohtani's 15 longest home runs of the 2023 season came in the 4.6 percent of his at-bats that came at Globe Life Field—all on different days against different pitchers.
Again, not saying, just saying. There's no smoking gun here; no evidence of buzzers, trash cans or anything nefarious. Just some weird, not immediately explainable home/road splits in which balls were soaring in Texas in 2023.
A Home Run Haven No Longer
What's weirder than the Rangers' 2023 data, though, is trying to marry it with their 2025 data, which makes you wonder if the baseball-storing humidors in Arlington are broken.
At least what the Rangers actually slugged in 2023 was pretty close to their expected slugging. Marcus Semien (.478 SLG vs. .427 xSLG) and Robbie Grossman (.394 SLG vs. .350 xSLG) were a bit lucky as far as batted ball data was concerned, but the other eight Rangers with at least 300 plate appearances all had a slugging percentage within 18 points (in either direction) of their expected slugging.
This year's Rangers?
Much different story.
Instead of eight of the 10 team leaders in plate appearances slugging within 18 points of their expected slugging, it's seven of the 10 slugging at least 64 points worse than expected, with only Josh Smith (.427 SLG vs. .419 xSLG) exceeding expectations.
To some extent, the aforementioned "more drag on the baseball" article by The Athletic comes into play there, as there are roughly six times as many MLB players presently slugging 60 points worse than expected as there are players slugging at least 60 points better than expected. But Texas has been saddled with far more than its fair share of representation in that club.
On the pitching front, check out the slugging vs. expected slugging numbers for the Rangers' five leaders in innings pitched, each of whom has been 'fortunate' by between 25 and 132 points:
Notably, xSLG data doesn't split between home and away. However, with the Rangers slugging 42 points better on the road and allowing 65 points better on the road, it doesn't take much of a leap of faith to infer that most of the unrealized expected slugging is happening at Globe Life Field.
The "glass half full" news is that Texas may well send multiple pitchers to the All-Star Game for the first time since Yu Darvish and Joe Nathan represented the Rangers in 2013. Both Eovaldi and Mahle are presently on the IL, but might get roster invites if healthy. deGrom is a sure thing, provided he's healthy, too.
For the "glass half empty" philosophers, however, the Rangers might also become the first team since the 1989 Dodgers—that's right, our second 1989 Dodgers reference of the column—to post a losing record while leading the majors in fewest runs allowed.
As far as the why goes, your guess is as good as mine.
Sure, Texas's biggest boppers from two years ago (Adolis Garcia, Corey Seager, and Marcus Semien) are past their prime now and not packing as much punch in their bats as they had before, regardless of venue. And, yes, having a healthy deGrom in the mix is bound to help any pitching staff look better as a whole.
But going from 10.7 runs scored per game at Globe Life Field in 2023 to an MLB-low 6.2 runs per game this season—from the most live ball outside of Coors Field to a ball that's deader than disco just two years later—baffles the mind.
While many venues north of Texas tend to produce more home runs in July and August when the ball soars through the hot and humid air, the Rangers play in a dome, and it wasn't exactly chilly there in April.
Case in point, they slugged .500 at home before the All-Star Break in 2023 and .489 after it. Similar story last year, going from .402 in the first half to .382 in the second half. There's no good reason they should suddenly start mashing at home in the second half, and there will be a whole new line of questioning about what's going on at Globe Life Field if they do.
