The 10 greatest outfield arms in Texas Rangers history

The Texas Rangers have a knack for developing quality outfielders with great arm strength, but some of their top arms may surprise you.

The Texas Rangers have always had an assortment of outfielders with quality arms roaming the outfield grass.

Data analysts and sabermetric gurus throughout baseball use ARM and rARM to determine how useful an outfielder’s cannon really is.

FanGraphs explains ARM like this:

“Outfielder’s get credit (plus or minus) depending on what the runners do on a hit or a fly ball out. A runner can stay put, advance, or get thrown out. A fielder will get credit not only if he throws out more than his share of runners, but also if he keeps more than his share of runners from advancing extra bases.”

Based on this statistic, you can measure and determine the greatest outfield arms across the league.

For the Texas Rangers, we’re looking at outfielders from the 1972 inaugural team all the way to the 2020 roster, with a minimum of 1,000 innings played in the outfield.

So based on ARM, here are the best outfield arms in Texas Rangers history, beginning with the outliers.

Texas Rangers outfield arms: The Outliers

Some of these players were considered to have the best throwing arms on the Texas Rangers, but statistically, they failed to crack the top 10.

Some of the most surprising to avoid the top 10 were Nelson Cruz (13) and Shin-Soo Choo (21), as well as Juan Gonzalez.

Cruz, in particular, caught me off guard because of his arm strength, but he did allow -1.9 runners to advance.

Gonzalez just missed the innings threshold (986.2), but had a 7.0 ARM rating.

These players caught my attention because of how insanely talented they all were, but rated poorly when it came to stopping advancing baserunners or missing the innings requirement.

Texas Rangers best outfield arms: Nos. 10-6

The top ten players on this list feature plenty of prominent Texas Rangers outfielders, but the back five may have the two biggest names of all.

Kevin Mench rounds out the top ten, preceded by David Murphy, Josh Hamilton, Lance Nix and Gary Matthews Jr.

GMJ led the group with a 0.9 ARM rating

Lance Nix followed Matthews with a 2.8 ARM rating.

I was thoroughly surprised that Hamilton (0.8 ARM) and Murphy (0.3 ARM) finished so low given their natural abilities.

Kevin Mench rounded out this group with his 0.3 ARM rating.

Texas Rangers best outfield arms: No. 5- Ian Desmond

The Texas Rangers signed Desmond late in the 2016 offseason with the intent for him to move from the infield dirt to the outfield grass.

Desmond wasted no time getting adjusted to left fieId, and soon after, became the Rangers everyday centerfielder.

He’s always had the athletic ability, and put it on full display after making the transition.

Over the course of 1,360 innings, Desmond sported a 4.1 ARM rating in his first season as an outfielder.

Not too shabby for a converted shortstop, who would go on to sign a huge deal with the Colorado Rockies to roam the expansive Coors Field outfield.

Texas Rangers best outfield arms: No. 4- Nomar Mazara

Nomar Mazara was once a highly-coveted prospect in the Texas Rangers system, but he never panned out with the bat.

Mazara did, however, contribute to some huge throws over his time in Arlington, more specifically one throw in Seattle to end a game.

Mazara finished his career with the red, white and blue with a 6.5 ARM rating.

Ask Robinson Cano. He knows better than to run on the powerful arm of the Big Chill.

Unfortunately, Mazara’s strong arm was the only notable aspect of his game that really clicked while down in Arlington.

Texas Rangers best outfield arms: No. 3- Craig Gentry

Craig Gentry really never made a name for himself with Texas, other than his elite baserunning skills.

One thing he did have, though, was a cannon for an arm.

Over the course of his Rangers career, Gentry had a 9.0 ARM rating, good enough to place him third on the list of Texas’ all-time great outfield arms.

Although he didn’t contribute much with the bat, he was an excellent defensive player with an elite arm.

Those types of players can be invaluable to a team making a playoff run, which the Texas Rangers were doing with regularity while Gentry was part of the squad.

Texas Rangers best outfield arms: No. 1- Leonys Martin

Rounding out the best outfield arms in Rangers history is none other than Leonys Martin.

The Rangers signed Martin out of Cuba, knowing he had huge upside with the bat and a great glove.

Little did they realize that in five seasons with the club, he would lead them in ARM rating.

Sitting atop the Rangers leaderboard with a 28.5 ARM rating, Martin has proven his dominance in the outfield with just his throwing arm alone.

Anytime you can double Joey Gallo’s positive stats, you can and should be considered elite, especially when it comes to superior outfield defense.

Leonys Martin was just that in the Texas outfield, ready to throw out a baserunner at any moment’s notice.