Texas Rangers: Shin-Soo Choo Is Back In The Lineup

Texas Rangers fans will be able to welcome Shin-Soo Choo back to the starting lineup for the first game against the Tampa Bay Rays Friday. Choo has been on the DL after surgery on a broken forearm, he last played August 15th.

The Texas Rangers will receive yet another weapon in the return of outstanding leadoff man Shin-Soo Choo. However GM Jeff Banister said that at this point Choo would not take the leadoff spot from surging Carlos Gomez but that Choo may be in that spot later on.

Carlos Gomez has been ridiculously good as of late, most notably hitting a 3 run homer in each of the last two games at pivotal times for the Texas Rangers. Banister said it wouldn’t be smart of him to mess with a lineup that is producing very well lately. Instead Choo will be featured at right field and in the 7 slot of the lineup against the Rays.

Choo will be taking rookie Nomar Mazara‘s position in the field but not in the lineup, Mazara has been batting 8th. Banister decided to swap that spot with Mitch Moreland who is having his own struggles and with that swap it may allow for Choo to get an extra at bat in during the game.

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Now Shin-Soo Choo is a good player and should, at the least, provide a veteran bat off of the bench in the post season but he has dealt with many injuries this year. 4 times he has been placed on the DL for some sort of injury and in his last stint before being placed back on the DL he played in 12 games: had 43 at bats, 5 runs, 9 hits, 7 walks, 13 strikeouts, and saw his ERA dip .019 points.

Those really weren’t Choo like numbers so the Rangers are attempting to see if he will come back and produce Choo numbers or more like that 12 game stint. Hopefully he is able to get his rhythm and timing back since this latest injury didn’t have anything to do with his legs like previous ones.

He should get a lot of playing time over this final regular season series for the Rangers in order to get him into game shape and see where he is playing wise. It would be yet but another good thing to happen at the right time for the Rangers this year.

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This has been a magical season thus far and Banister seems to make the right moves at the right time and I have no doubt in the moves he will continue to make towards their World Series run. What do you think Choo’s role should be a this point and do you think he should be taking Mazara’s playing time or be primarily a DH?