Rangers Should Still Be on Lookout for Closer Despite Strong Start From New Reliever

The Texas Rangers have gotten off to a stellar start in the 2025 MLB regular season despite several of their key contributors not yet offering much in the way of production.
Four starters in the lineup have a negative WAR through the first 13 games. Josh Smith, who is hitting .308, is the only starter who has a batting average above .250.
Scoring runs has been an issue in a majority of their games, but it hasn’t hurt them too much yet because of the stellar performances they are getting from their pitchers on the mound.
Nathan Eovaldi, Jacob deGrom, Jack Leiter and Tyler Mahle have combined for a 1.8 WAR across eight starts. Kumar Rocker had a strong second start against the Tampa Bay Rays after getting lit up by the Cincinnati Reds in his 2025 debut.
While the starting rotation has gotten the job done for the most part, the performance of the bullpen, overall, has been shaky.
Five relief pitchers have recorded negative WAR numbers, including closer Luke Jackson.
He has steadied the ship after his debut against the Boston Red Sox, when he was rocked, giving up three earned runs in 0.2 innings.
Six scoreless outings in a row have been recorded since that point, including a perfect 5-for-5 on save chances.
Pitching well for now, it is fair to wonder how long that will last given his track record. Across 10 MLB seasons and 364.1 innings, he has a career ERA of 4.25. He has struggled with giving free passes, owning a career 10.0% walk rate, which could quickly lead to disaster as a late-inning reliever.
The Rangers need to keep that in mind when evaluating the roster, as Jackson’s turnaround should not deter them from looking to add some upgrades to the back end of the bullpen ahead of the trade deadline.
Jackson had 18 career saves coming into the year, the most of any reliever on the roster. So, it made sense that Bruce Bochy would turn to him out of the gate and see how he handled the role.
He has passed the test up to this point, but Texas should not be content with this bullpen makeup if they are serious about contending for a World Series.
They should be monitoring the market, seeing which closers could become available based on the performance of teams around the league.
Based on how they handled reshaping the bullpen in the offseason, this could have been their strategy all along.
Make due over the first few months of the season, re-evaluate things once the summer rolls around and aggressively pursue an upgrade accordingly.
Jackson can certainly function as part of the high-leverage, late-game group for Bochy, but the team’s outlook improves greatly if they bring in a bona fide, established closer.