With opening day right around the corner, the Rangers have more depth on their roster than they have had in years. In previous years players were able to prove themselves with very little pressure on them as the team had been in a much different situation. Coming off their fist World Series win in franchise history, the expectations are significantly higher than ever before. With the expectations so high these four players will try to prove themselves and cement their roster spots for all of 2024 and perhaps going into 2025.
1. Leody Taveras
Former top prospect in the Rangers system, Leody Taveras will have at least the beginning of 2024 to prove that he deserves to be the everyday center fielder going forward. Taveras has looked like an all-star at times, and other times he looks like a 4th outfielder. It seems that the all-star break throws him off his game. In 2022 he had a .920 OPS in the first half and a .585 OPS in the second half. It was more of the same story in 2023 as well. He arguably should’ve been an all-star with an .812 OPS in the first half with well above average defense. He struggled again in the second half with a .642 OPS. If he can find a way to stay consistent with his performances that he has had in the first halves of the past two seasons he will force a difficult situation on the front office with Garcia and Carter seemingly having the corner outfield spots on lock and Wyatt Langford presumably coming up this year.
2. Ezequiel Duran
Duran looked like the future super-utility star in the first half after posting an .870 OPS in the first half. With how much he struggled in the second half, the Rangers decided to leave him off the postseason roster to begin the playoffs.
He took over for Corey Seager for about a month when he was injured and made sure the Rangers didn’t miss him too much. He provides excellent versatility, playing every position besides pitcher, catcher, and center field. It seems that pitchers began to expose his weaknesses of not being able to lay off pitches outside the strike zone. He had a 37.7% chase rate and a 5.2% walk rate. Those ranked in the 7th and 9th percentiles respectively. His regular season numbers ended up at a 106 OPS+ and just a 0.9 bWAR. I believe his WAR would benefit from just playing shortstop, because that’s where he graded out best at. Obviously the Rangers don’t have a need for shortstop as they have the best one in the league.
A lot of his value at this point is his versatility, but he is currently projected to be the DH at the beginning of the season. That could be in jeopardy as Wyatt Langford and Justin Foscue will most likely be debuting this year making Duran all but expendable.
3. Josh Sborz
Josh Sborz will forever be remembered fondly by Rangers fan for his historic postseason performance capped off by getting the final out of the franchise’s first World Series. He only allowed one run while pitching 12 high leverage innings during the postseason run.
Sborz can clearly be as dominant as they come shown by his playoff dominance, as well as his torrid stretch in June where he posted a 0.55 ERA with 22 strikeouts to only 2 walks in 16.1 innings. This shows that when he is avoiding the middle of the zone he can be one of the best relievers in baseball. The issue with him is that he will find the middle of the zone and watch his pitches get crushed too often. Besides June, he threw 36 innings and gave up 7 home runs. This resulted in a 1.75 HR/9 which is half a HR above league average and that adds up very quickly. He will be looking to build upon his strong June and elite postseason performance this season to prove he can be a reliable back of the bullpen option.
4. Brock Burke
Burke has had a roller coaster of a career so far. He came up in 2019 as a starting pitcher and pitched to a well below average 7.43 ERA in just 26.2 innings. He missed all of 2020 and 2021 and came back in 2022 with a stellar 1.97 ERA in 82.1 innings. He also had an above average strikeout rate and walk rate in that season. There was reason to believe that if he could somewhat replicate that season he could become one of the best left-handed relief pitchers in the game. Instead, he pitched to a mediocre 4.37 ERA. His WHIP, H/9, K/9, and HR/9 all took considerable steps back. If he can find a decent middle ground between the 2022 and 2023 seasons he could be very valuable, but if he doesn’t the team could look to trade him or move on from him.