AL West rival's strange experiment with former Mariners slugger didn't last long

Texas Rangers v Baltimore Orioles | Mitchell Layton/GettyImagesThe Rangers tried to jolt a flatlining lineup by parachuting a former Seattle Mariner into the hitting cage. In early May of 2025, Texas plucked Bret Boone off the airwaves of his podcast and dropped him into an MLB dugout for the first time, hoping pedigree and edge could shake an offense scraping the bottom of the league.

For a minute, it looked like a spark: the run environment perked up, the nightly grind felt less suffocating, and a club that spent April and early May at or near the bottom in OBP, OPS, and runs finally showed signs of life. But as the months stacked up, the bigger picture didn’t budge enough. Boone’s…