Can the Texas Rangers defend their World Series title? What are their chances to go back to back?

Every Texas Rangers fan in the world will recognize the feeling. Spring training is just around the corner. The team needs to bulk up in certain areas and make a solid start to the season. Then hang on through the dog days and pray that the injury gods smile on Arlington so that they can make a push into the post season.

Except this year, it is a little different.

For the first time in their history, the Texas Rangers will enter 2024 as the defending champs. They are not rebuilding or trying to get over that last hump, but instead will be the team to beat; the top dog, no matter what the Dodgers and Yankees might say on the subject.

This is new territory for the Rangers. But for as much as they might be in the driver’s seat, that is not to say that they can rest on their laurels.

The media has painted the Dodgers as the new kings of baseball, only lacking the formalities of actually being crowned, due to their mega signings of Shohei Ohtani and Yosinobu Yamamoto, not to mention their extension of Tyler Glasnow’s contract.

Of course there are others in the fray as well, with the Atlanta Braves still topping the MLB Power Rankings, largely on the back of what they have retained rather than what they have picked up - namely MVP Ronald Acuña Jr, Matt Olson, Austin Riley, and Ozzie Albies, all of whom give Atlanta a fearsome power with he bat.

But both of these teams, and every other team besides, will have to deal with the Texas Rangers, who were an enigma that nobody could fully get their heads around in 2023, and are substantially unchanged.

With the bat, the Rangers still have Corey Seager, Evan Carter, Josh Jung, Adolis Garcia and Jonah Heim at full strength, and while they will be without Mitch Garver who signed with Seattle, they could fill that hole with a good DH signing, such as JD Martinez or Justin Turner, who are still available.

Texas will open without Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, who are expected to be out until mid-summer, but the rotation is still impressive. Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, Dane Dunning, Andrew Heaney and Cody Bradford look to be the spring training crew, but the big push that the Rangers need for this off season is to get another big arm to the stable.

The courting of Jordan Montgomery has been intense and the general feeling is that his price tag will be too high for Texas, particularly after the collapse of Diamond Sports left them without a big-money tv deal. There is always a chance that Texas will find the money somewhere and Montgomery could stay in Arlington, which if it comes to pass would make the Rangers rotation the best in baseball by a country mile. But realistically, Monty will likely wind up leaving for more prosperous shores.

The Rangers are reportedly in pole position in the hunt to sign Josh Hader from the Padres, and while this is a different proposition than Monty, could be an even stronger deal. Hader is one of the best relievers in baseball and with deep starters like Evo and Dunning in the rotation, could provide the knockout one-two punch that Texas so needs to stay at the top of the table.

14 teams have gone back-to-back as World Series champions, but none have done it this century. The last to accomplish the feat was the Yankees, who had a three-peat in 1998, ‘99, an ‘00. Like that team, what the Rangers have now is consistency. A winning squad that is largely intact. And to their benefit, the Rangers have one advantage. They are widely underestimated. And that, you have to feel, is just the way that they like it.