Texas Rangers July 4 Week in Review: Who’s Hot, Who’s Not

Jun 27, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Texas Rangers catcher Robinson  Chirinos (61) hits a home run during the fifth inning in a game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

3. Robinson Chirinos

Chirinos is in his third season with the Rangers, a team that has been struggling to find a good catcher over recent years. Chirinos played in 93 games in 2014, hitting .239/.415/.705 with 13 home runs in 338 plate appearances. So far in 2015, Chirinos has played in 54 games and has hit just .202/.300/.416 with 8 home runs.

This past week, Chirinos played in six of the seven games and hit .150/.227/.450 with two home runs in 20 at-bats. He had shown signs of improvement in May, hitting .241/.378/.534 but crashed back down in June by hitting .222/.290/.397.

The only other player to play catcher this season is Carlos Corporan, who has appeared in 28 games and has managed to hit worse than Chirinos. He has been hitting .198/.269/.333 with three home runs and 14 RBI in 110 plate appearances. With top prospect Jorge Alfaro out for the season with injury, the top two options for a replacement catcher are Chris Gimenez and Tomas Telis. Of the two, Telis has had the better hitting season, having hit .298/.337/.424 with five home runs and 25 RBI in 255 ABs.

Also considered for this spot: Leonys Martin has continued his struggles as he hit .217/.280/.261 with just one run scored. It is looking more and more that he will be losing playing time in the coming weeks.

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