The Texas Rangers, to borrow a phrase from their 2023 World Series opponents the Arizona Diamondbacks, have been one of MLB’s most snakebitten teams.

Just one of six current franchises to never win a World Series, the Rangers were one strike away from championship glory against St. Louis in 2011, only to lose in seven games. They lost a five-game World Series to the San Francisco Giants the year before, while other contending rosters over the years ran into competitive buzzsaws like the New York Yankees’ 1990s dynasty and the Jose Bautista-era Toronto Blue Jays of the mid-2010s.

More recently, the Rangers spent $700 million toward the $1.2 billion Globe Life Field, only to see no fans attend that first year due to the pandemic. When fans were finally allowed back, the Rangers greeted them with respective 102- and 94-loss seasons in 2021 and 2022 — the most for the club in a two-year span since 1973 — immediately dampening hopes of greater attendance at the new facility.