The Rangers are losing one of the best third base players of all time with the retirement of Adrian Beltre. Whoever they replace him with, he will be no Beltre. They obviously have several internal options including Jurickson Profar, Joey Gallo and to a lesser extent Isaiah Kiner-Falefa. The Rangers seem to have Kiner-Falefa tagged as a future catcher at this point.
Jurickson Profar is someone the Rangers would really like to keep, and he is a very good infielder. He has proven to be a good third baseman, and playing there every day would only strengthen his abilities. He started 46 games at third in 2018. He had a fielding percentage of .919, the lowest among all his positions (.940 at shortstop). He had 11 errors at third and 13 errors at shortstop. His range appeared good. He definitely has the arm. He is still young. He is probably going to be the choice there.
Joey Gallo came up in the organization as a third baseman. He was touted a few years ago as Adrian Beltre’s replacement. Things have changed. He is still a good third baseman, but I believe the Rangers want him to be an outfielder. He never played at third in 2018. He started 66 games at third in 2017, he had 13 errors and a fielding percentage of .930. Gallo, being a company man, will say that he will play anywhere. Ranger fans noticed in 2018 that he had a few blunders in the outfield, but if he is being completely transitioned there, he will get better. I think it would be good for the Rangers to make a choice either way so Joey can get comfortable with whatever position they stick him in. In 2018, he played all three outfield positions, but mostly he played left field (85 of his 108 total games).
There is always a third option. The guy who is not on this team right now. Unless they get rid of Profar or Gallo, I don’t see that happening. My opinion, it will be Profar and maybe Kiner-Falefa as his backup, and Joey will be the full time left fielder. The Rangers don’t normally ask my opinion though. Not that they should. But I digress. The infield will be young, and that is not necessarily a bad thing.
