I've got plans.

The Rangers' 2024 season helped set them. But so does this format.

In plotting out my baseball content for October and the few months that follow, I start with this: a lot has changed.

For one, I’m going to have 17 fewer playoff games to spend tens of thousands of words on.

Second, I’m back to writing for myself. And that’s a freedom I plan to take advantage of.

I suppose I could have worked up a “Four Things” Texas League Postseason Preview for today, as Frisco righty Winston Santos readies to face the Midland RockHounds tonight in Game One of the RoughRiders’ best-of-three South Division Championship Series against the A’s affiliate, just to scratch the itch. Instead, I’ll leave the minor-league playoff writeups to Scott Lucas.

But I don’t plan on hibernating through October. Well before I get around to a new Top 72 Rangers Prospects ranking, which I’ve to grown to prefer rolling out after a spring training visit (and the looks I get there, not to mention the conversations I start), I’m going to kick off the offseason’s content with something I never would have been allowed to do with The Athletic.

I’m going to dedicate a story to every position on the field, with a picture-in-picture structure to it. Where does Texas go in center field in 2025? At the same time, what is the long-term vision for the position? Is there a path for a player to step in internally? Or is an external upgrade more likely — and maybe even as soon as this winter?

And so on. We’ll look at the landscape for every position, and for the rotation, and for the bullpen. We’ll consider the possibility that the Rangers run it back with the same player in 2025 as well as the idea that there could be a change — and in that scenario, we will look at options from the farm system, discuss specific free agents who could fit, and spitball some trade scenarios.

These will be deep dives, which is why I’m going to write about catcher on a different day from weighing in on first base. You get the idea.

There’s been a lot of regression on the major-league roster in 2024 — it would have been crazy not to expect some of that, just maybe not this much — and it’s probably reasonable to expect that while players careering in 2023 may not have set a new norm for their projections going forward, neither have those who have bottomed out in 2024 (and yes, there are players on the roster who populate both categories at once). But Chris Young is not going to sit still and count on a wave of bouncebacks. There will be changes this winter. Possibly some big ones.

(Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

That’s what I’m ready to dig in on and write about. A lot. I’ll still get in some “Three Up, Three Down” gamers and “Sunday Hops” entries down this final stretch, and possibly some other stories interspersed as events and brainstorms warrant, but the positional essays are getting teed up.

October is going to be fun around here. No, not as fun as last year. But we’re going get to work shortly on an outsized series of TROT COFFEY’ing this roster, not only heading into 2025 but setting things up beyond that as well.

I hope you’ll consider jumping aboard if you haven’t already. There are multiple subscription options; see if one feels like a good fit for you as we head into an important offseason — one in which the newly minted and thankfully retained President of Baseball Operations looks to retool a roster for manager Bruce Bochy, whose habit is to win the World Series two years after doing it the last time.

And I’m extremely grateful to those of you who have already helped build this community. My intention is always to make sure you feel you’re getting your money’s worth — during the season as well as in the all-important offseasons. There should be no shortage of Rangers maneuvering this winter to give us plenty to weigh in on, and the reason I want to start the positional series in October is I want to get it rolling before the big moves start to get fired off.

Let’s go.