Predicting the 2022 Texas Rangers Opening Day Lineup

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Soon, the Rangers will be commencing upon their 50th opening day since coming to Texas.

50 years of playing baseball under the Texas sun(Or roof nowadays) and every year, Rangers fans have valiantly stood by their team through thick and thin. However, this year looks to be one Texas Rangers fans get rewarded for their patience.

Excitement has begun to burst at the seams for this ball club, as the Rangers are swiftly approaching the back end of a rebuild. One that has led to multiple seasons of disappointment, and quite frankly poor play, albeit even though the poor play was because of tanking for draft capital.

Although, this has been the aura surrounding the Rangers of recent years, times certainly are changing in Arlington, TX, as the Rangers not only went on a spending spree totaling over $500 million with the commitments to Seager, Semien, Gray, Calhoun, and company; they are also a team full of young talent ready to contribute, either this year or very soon. By finally doling out money, this ownership has shown confidence in this teams ability to finally compete, and a competitive baseball team means a very fun year for all of the much deserving Ranger fans who had to sit through these past few rough seasons.

So, as the Texas Rangers embark on this season it is time to take a look at who will possibly be in the lineup donning red, white, and blue on April 8th in Canada.

Now batting on Opening Day for the 2022 Texas Rangers ..

2B Marcus Semien(R)
SS Corey Seager(L)
C Mitch Garver(R)
1B Nathaniel Lowe(L)
CF Adolis Garcia(R)
DH Willie Calhoun(L)
LF Brad Miller(L)
3B Andy Ibañez(R)
RF Kole Calhoun(L)

On the bench:

Jake Marisnick(OF), Jose Trevino(C), Nick Solak(2B, LF, 3B), Eli White(OF, 2B)

AMARILLO, TEXAS – JULY 25: Infielder Josh Jung #18 of the Frisco RoughRiders rounds the bases after hitting a home run during the game against the Amarillo Sod Poodles at HODGETOWN Stadium on July 25, 2021 in Amarillo, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /

Some things to add:

Injuries suck

While many fans were looking forward to seeing Josh Jung break into the lineup, as he is the Texas Rangers’ No. 2 prospect, and MLB’s 47th ranked prospect overall, he unfortunately was injured during the offseason and is out for quite sometime, and if he is to return this season it will be very late into the season and as a primarily DH role, so sadly Rangers fans will have to wait to see the young phenom for quite a while. While that puts a bit of a damper on things, that is not to take anything away from Andy Ibañez. In his 76 games played in 2021 he hit .271, had an OBP of .321, and had an OPS of .756. With those numbers stretched over a full season he would’ve ranked within the top 14 3rd basemen in the league in terms of OPS according to MLB.com, which certainly isn’t a bad showing for a players first major league action.

Where the new guys will bat:

Another interesting thing to point out is with how the spring training lineups have been taking shape, it seems there is a major focus of having Semien, Seager, and Garver next to each other in the order, either batting 1, 2, 3 or 2, 3, 4. However, we’ve seen already through this short spring Semien bat leadoff multiple times, which leads one to believe that is where he’s going to open the season in the order.

While Semien is a phenomenal talent, this positioning worries me a bit. His splits as a batter leading off an inning were very good in 88 games last year with a slash of .260/.325/.521, he did much better in a much smaller sample size in the 3 hole with a slash of .310/.351/.606, not to mention he hit 45 home runs in total last year. I am not the biggest fan of isolating that much power and potential RBIs to the leadoff position. With that being said, as long as Marcus Semien is in the lineup, I will not be complaining.

ARLINGTON, TEXAS – OCTOBER 02: Willie Calhoun #5 of the Texas Rangers rounds the bases after hitting a solohome run against the Cleveland Indians in the bottom of the first inning at Globe Life Field on October 02, 2021 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /

Bench depth and versatility:

With the lineup looking have a fantastic mix of lefties and righties, it will be very difficult to take advantage of this team. Especially with the position flexibility of Miller and the guys on the bench, the Texas Rangers should have many options to take the advantage no matter the handedness of the pitcher they face. Although, you’d much rather have Miller in the lineup facing righties, as he slashed .244/.354/.488 against righties, compared to only a .166/.200/.338 versus lefties. So, a platoon situation looks likely there, and perhaps we can see him split some time with Ibanez at 3B, as Ibanez annihilates lefties, but doesn’t fare as well versus righties.

Potential breakouts:

Other points of emphasis are on Adolis Garcia, Lowe, and Willie Calhoun. Can these guys take the next step? If they can this lineup has potential to be lethal.

For Adolis, after the nosedive he took in the second half, he looks to bounce back in a lineup that offers him substantial protection. Maybe the protection is all that the power hitting all 2021 all-star needs to stop chasing unnecessary pitches and trying to do too much.

As for Lowe, he is of the the utmost focus of manager Chris Woodward, and is a 2022 breakout candidate. Woodward has been on record touting his confidence and high expectations in the 26 year old. Lowe gets on base quite well, but he doesn’t hit for a ton of power, and he lacks a quality glove, two things you need out of a quality first baseman. As Lowe struggled with high velocity pitches and hit far too many balls on the ground. As he went through an offseason improving on these issues, he looks to become an impact on this team.

What about Willie? The forgotten piece that with a breakout season could be the potential glue that truly brings this lineup together. If we see a fully healthy season of Calhoun then great things could be in store, as he looks to have a big 2022.

Regardless of how this season turns out record wise, this will be one of the most exciting teams to watch in baseball, especially if it all comes together.

3 Rangers prospects showing out at spring training. dark. Next

So sit back and enjoy Rangers fans, because baseball is soon to be back in Texas, and this lineup looks ready to hit.

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