The loss Monday in Game 100 this season dropped the Texas Rangers back to .500 and out of first place in the American League West.

ARLINGTON — The starting rotation was always going to regress this season after leading baseball in ERA in 2025, but it’s still frustrating when Jacob deGrom can’t get the out he needs in an important game.

The offense had to be better this season. Overall, it has been, especially of late, but to get only two against a soft-tossing right-hander is frustrating.

The defense that set an MLB record for fielding percentage in 2025 started out poorly this season, but rebounded nicely until Sunday at Atlanta and then again Monday with some plays that could have been made but weren’t.

Don’t forget the bullpen, which produced the Rangers‘ lone All-Star this season but has been so overworked and was so short on arms Monday that they hoped a not-ready-for-prime-time prospect would keep them in striking distance.

Monday’s loss, 10-3 to the White Sox in game No. 100, told half the story of the Rangers’ season. The other half was told Saturday in Atlanta, with a feisty win amid some of the all-too-familiar bumpiness.

The Rangers have won half their games and lost half, an even 50-50 record that has been wildly uneven. Nothing to date suggests anything different will unfold over the final 62 games. There are reasons to think the bottom might fall out but also reasons to believe an American League West title is in the Rangers’ future.

The next 12 games — probably the next nine, to be honest — will determine what the front office believes. More wins than losses, and the Rangers will sacrifice more prospects for another shot at the postseason by adding at the Aug. 3 trade deadline. More losses than wins, and the Rangers could unload any tradeable assets with an eye on 2027 and beyond.

The more likely outcome, even staring down quality foes over the next nine games, is that the Rangers will be right they are now, flirting with first place in the AL West, still waiting on Corey Seager and three injured starters. At that point, president of baseball operations Chris Young might be willing to make only a few additions to the bullpen and then ride it out.

That’s probably what’s best for the organization going forward and probably only what this team deserves. Say the Rangers make it to the postseason, what are the odds that they get out of the first round?

The juice might not be worth the squeeze. That seems to be the line Young is toeing right now.

After 100 games, it’s safe to say the Rangers aren’t worth investment, especially an all-in deadline salvo that would further deplete an already thin farm system.

Their record after 100 games — 50-50 — speaks volumes.

_{Jeff Wilson, jwilson@alldlls.com}