Rangers Fall in ESPN Future Rankings

Every year, a panel of three experts over at ESPN puts together a set of "future power rankings" for all MLB teams, and for the past few years, the Texas Rangers have been near the top of the list.

The rankings account for a specific set of criteria to determine current competitiveness and staying power, as well as future greatness.

The criteria are: last year's record, farm system, financial situation, management and mobility. Of course, last year's record was awful, but pretty much everything else is strong with the Rangers, but all it could get the Rangers in this year's ranking was a spot at No. 15. That's not terrible, but when compared to the past few years, it's pretty bad.

In 2013, for instance, the Rangers checked in at No. 3. The year before that? They were No. 2.

As a whole, the AL West was laid out about how we expect it to play out on the field in the coming years, which is just one big jumbled mess.

The Angels were ranked No. 12 after their strong season, despite having a very weak farm system. The Mariners checked in at No. 14, while the Astros came in right behind the Rangers at No. 16. Surprisingly, the A's were ranked last in the division at No. 19, mainly because they gutted their farm system to make a late-season push and watched it backfire.

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