The Texas Rangers infield will look very similar to the way it did at the end of last season, with the addition of Prince Fielder back at first base. The Texas Rangers seem to have a very solid infield going forward, and I for one am happy with the players that we have at each position right now. There are going to be a few bumps and bruises along the way in 2015, but overall I think the Texas Rangers infield has a good chance to be something special defensively and hopefully offensively as well.
Adrian Beltre (third base) is the guy who does not seem to age. Every season I think he is finally going to take a step back at third base, but he never seems to. Adrian has been the Texas Rangers player of the year for what seems like the last three or four years now. His defense is still stellar, even though he may not be as quick as he once was, he is still just as effective at he hot corner. At the plate last season he had a line of .324/.388/.492 with 19 home runs and 77 RBI. In the field he made 12 errors, which is a little high for him, but his fielding percentage was .967, which is higher than his career average of .959. Adrian will have another stellar season, and he will be enjoyable to watch again next to:
Elvis Andrus (short stop) will have a bounce back season at the plate. He did not have his best season either at the plate or in the field in 2014, but I expect that to change for 2015. Elvis had 18 errors in 2014, which was the third highest in his career, and the highest since 2011. At the plate he batter .263, which is the lowest of his career, including his rookie season. He stole 27 bases, second lowest of his career and he was caught stealing 15 times, which tied a career high for him. We tend to forget that Elvis is still a very young man and still has some growing to do, and I think that he learned from the year he had in 2014. I expect to see a much more motivated Andrus in 2015, and a much more focused Elvis as well, although I do hope he and Beltre continue
to mess around with eachother.
Rougned Odor (second base) earned a spot on this team last season, and I am excited to see what he can do with a full major league season. I feel bad for Jurickson Profar, but there is no way he gets to start in place of Odor after the type of season each man had. Rougned did not look over matched at all at the major league level, and he impressed me day in and day out playing second base. Sure he made some rookie mistakes, but not as many as I expected, and I think he will be really great in 2015.
Prince Fielder (first base) missed games for the first time in forever in 2014, and I think he is going to be highly motivated to show Texas Rangers fans that signing him was not a bad idea. I expect Prince to get back to the masher that he was for all those years in Milwaukee and Detroit. I look for Prince to have 30 plus home runs, 90 plus RBI and a ton of walks. If he can get back to that guy and just be average in the field, then the Texas Rangers will have a good first baseman this season. First base was a tough position to watch last season with all the guys that ran through the spot. Sure would have been nice to have Michael Young there in 2014. Prince will be a beast again in 2015.
Robinson Chirinos has earned the number one catching spot for the Texas Rangers, and he will be backed up by Carlos Corporan, formerly of the Houston Astros. Chirinos did a great job behind the plate and hit for more power than I expected in 2014. I look for Robby to get sixty percent of the starts while Corporan will get most of the rest and also play some DH. The Texas Rangers have a pretty good tandem behing the plate going into 2015.
Spring training starts in just 18 days, and I for one cannot wait to start watching baseball again!!
