The majority of people who made the Texas Rangers World Series trophy a possibility will be at the White House to meet President Joe Biden on Thursday in Washington D.C.

That meeting with the President should effectively wrap up the 2023 World Series for the Rangers, a team that deservedly squeezed all of the love and adulation that comes with a title. The players are mostly the same, but whatever special magic, mojo and momentum they created a year ago is gone.

This currently isn’t a magical team but more of a “meh” team. There is no sign that it will change any time this season. Last year wasn’t a fluke, and neither is this year.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Houston Astros defeated the Rangers 6-4 at Globe Life Mall to take the three-game series, and to win the Silver Boot, too.

The Rangers were lucky not to be swept, and to avoid being no-hit on Tuesday night, too.

“Sucks. It hurts,” Rangers third baseman Josh Jung said after the loss.

On behalf of every Rangers fan, the Rangers did defeat the Astros in the American League Championship, including Game 7 in Houston, last season. There is that clause that keeps coming up again: “Last season.”

This season the Rangers are 54-61, and now have dropped nine of their last 12 games. They will not play a team that has a losing record until the Chicago White Sox come to Arlington on Aug. 27.

The Rangers are in a season-defining stretch where their GM Chris Young bet on his players who simply aren’t playing to the level they established last season.

Regression. Malaise. Injury. Hangover. Pick your excuse.

Or, don’t. You may still be enjoying the World Series too much at this point.

Don’t plan for another World Series in Arlington here in 2024; if the Rangers make it to .500, call it a success. They do play the A’s and Angels enough to make a run at above .500.

“We have a lot of August left, and September,” manager Bruce Bochy said after the game to the small gathering to media that stuck around. “This team has it in ‘em. I still believe that. ... I keep believing we’ll come out of this.”

So does his GM.

Soon enough, Young will have to make hard calls a few of those guys who made that World Series trophy a reality, starting with their big-headed, big-bicep’d outfielder from Cuba.

The Rangers have Adolis Garcia under contract through 2025, but expect the club to make it known to the other 29 MLB teams that he’s available. If another team is possibly interested, it’s not going to take much to get him.

Garcia will forever be a hero for the Rangers and their fans for what he did last season, and specifically throughout their entire playoff run. Nothing will erase all of those home runs, and runs batted in. Put him in the team Hall of Fame for his home run to win Game 1 of the World Series.

He has not looked like the same player since he injured his oblique in Game 3 of the World Series in Phoenix.

It has always felt, with Garcia, that he was one of those “too good to be true” players whose production would eventually crash. Garcia has not crashed, but he does not look like the player whose bat beat up the Astros in the ‘23 AL Championship Series.

Entering play on Wednesday, his batting average was an ugly .207. If you are one of those new-age stat heads who loathe batting average, Garcia’s OPS is .653. His OPS last season was .856.

He has 18 home runs and 54 RBI, both of which are decent. And then there are those strikeouts; he has 117 of those in 405 at bats. Not so decent.

On Wednesday, the Rangers trailed 2-0 in the fourth inning when they had two on with one out, and Garcia batting. He struck out swinging.

That’s how the season has gone for the Rangers, and for Garcia.

The Rangers are not seven games under .500 because of an outfielder. This is a team that’s built to win now, and it’s not reaching a standard that they set less than one year ago. Pick your reason why, and they all have a place at the table.

The pitching has been OK, while the offense hasn’t reached that lofty level.

When they visit the White House on Thursday, it will be the final act of their 2023 World Series team.

Their GM will soon enough have hard decisions about the futures of a few of the players who made that World Series title a reality, starting with a right fielder.