3 Texas Rangers position battles to watch during spring training

The Texas Rangers are about to embark on another month of Cactus League action in Surprise, Arizona and with it comes a vast number of decisions left to be made about the on-field personnel.

Two losing seasons in a row and an offseason that didn't answer a lot of burning questions from the offensive side makes fans a bit more uncertain of where the team will find the necessary production to find themselves return to the postseason.

A lot of starts in spring with answering who will be entrusted with a few important roles going into 2026 Opening Day in Philadelphia. Here are three position battles that I believe will be the biggest to solve during the Rangers spring training, and who is likely to win those battles.

3 position battles to keep an eye on during spring training

Second Base

After a four year stretch of Marcus Semien taking the everyday second base role for the Rangers, suddenly there's a hole following his trade to the Mets this offseason. Having not made any external moves to wrap up a second baseman this winter, the switch turns to internal candidates, with Josh Smith leading the way.

Smith isn't the only name on that list, the next two frontrunners would be the 25-year-old Cody Freeman and fifth year MLB veteran Ezequiel Duran. Long shot odds for that spot include Justin Foscue and non-roster invitees such as Rangers' 13th overall prospect Cam Cauley, Jonah Bridge and Tyler Wade.

Closer

Again we are having this conversation, which of the bullpen options will grow to be the team's Opening Day closer?

The Rangers have a lot of options to choose from but those options are still categorized as unknown quantities. Leading the way would be: Robert Garcia, Chris Martin, Josh Sborz or Cole Winn; mixed in you could find young prospects that might shock during spring or several other non-roster invites.

If the choice was up to me, I would go find a true starter via trade or free agency but if the only choice was between names already on the roster, the Opening Day gig would go to Martin.

Fifth and final rotation spot

Spots one through four are pretty much a given: Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, MacKenzie Gore and Jack Leiter. The final spot is up-in-the-air and between Jacob Latz and Kumar Rocker.

We have talked about it at nauseam this offseason so we will leave this section less than the other two. Latz shined in his eight starts last year with an ERA under 3.00 and a career night of in Baltimore back in June. While Rocker struggled in his 14 starts and spent the last few months of the season in Triple-A.

Rocker will need to do a lot to win the job, therefore, I believe Latz is primed to take the fifth spot come Opening Day.