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Texas Rangers: 5 players who have been surprise contributors

By Michael Sanders |
Texas Rangers v Seattle Mariners
Texas Rangers v Seattle Mariners / Steph Chambers/GettyImages
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The Texas Rangers are now 42 games into the season. They have passed the quarter mark in this season. They are in first place in the AL West, second in run differential, and second in runs scored. It has been a very surprising start for this Rangers team. It has been a complete team effort to get to this point. I want to bring up five players who have been key contributors to this surprise start.

1. Dane Dunning

Dunning continued his great start against the Braves on Tuesday night. He pitched six innings, giving up one run, on six hits, with four strikeouts, and zero walks. He was removed with the score 6-1 and the Rangers ended up winning 7-4. Dunning came into the 2023 season with question marks. He had hip surgery at the end of the 2022 season to repair a torn labrum. No one knew if he would be healthy and even if he was healthy could he still be effective. The talk all offseason was about how he would be starting the season in Round Rock. He came into camp and put up good starts and was also able to come out of the pen and be effective. When it was determined Jake Odorizzi would not be ready for the start of the season Dunning was made the long man along with Cole Ragans. He was dominant in that role as he started the season with six scoreless appearances. In late April Jacob deGrom went down with elbow inflammation. Dunning stepped into his spot in the rotation and has made three starts and is 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA. He has increased his strikeouts per 9 innings to 6.4 in that role. He has been so valuable both as a reliever and now as a starter. He bailed out the bullpen pitching multiple innings out of the pen and now is filling in more than capably for ace Jacob deGrom. He has been the one rock in the bullpen and now in the rotation that has consistently done their job at a high level.

2. Ezequiel Duran

Duran is another guy filling in for an injured superstar. Duran made the roster out of spring training, but mostly sat on the bench for the first two and a half weeks. I sent out the tweet below on April 18th. Prior to this day he was not playing regularly. He had only played one full game. He was being used as a pinch hitter or pinch runner. He did get two hits that day and has been in the lineup nearly every day since. He has taken over as the starting shortstop in Corey Seager's absence. In that time he has a .310 batting average, five home runs, 14 RBI's, He has played so well that Bochy has said that even with Seager being back he will still get regular playing time. He will likely still play some shortstop, some left field, and some DH. Whatever Bochy has to do to make sure he can stay in the lineup. As he showed last night having his bat in the lineup is better than not. He came up last night after the Braves scored three runs in the eighth and hit a powerful home run to the second deck in left field to provide some insurance and the Rangers were able to close out the 7-4 win.

3. Travis Jankowski

I know it is too early to talk about turning points in the season. I do feel like the Rangers faced a turning point on Sunday, April 9th. The Rangers lost a series the previous week against the Orioles and then lost the first two games against the Cubs. Their record was 4-4 as they were in danger of falling under .500 after that series sweep against the Phillies. Bochy started both Bubba Thompson and Travis Jankowski in the outfield. Jankowski was told in spring training he was not going to make the team. Then Taveras' oblique injury lingered and he started the season on the IL. The team came back and put Jankowski on the Opening Day roster. On Sunday April 9th, Jankowski was given his first starting assignment of the season. Jankowski played right field in the windy Wrigley Field. He played a great defensive game, but he also contributed offensively with an RBI-double that day. Since that game he started playing more regularly and has filled up the stat sheet. He has a .309 batting average, a .793 OPS, five doubles, one triple, nine RBI's, five stolen bases, and 21 total hits. That is in addition to playing great outfield defense in whatever position Bochy has placed him in. Unfortunately, he went down with a right hamstring injury on May 7th and has been on the IL ever since. Hopefully, the Rangers will be getting him back by the end of this month. The injury does not take away from what he has contributed to this team both in the batters' box and in the outfield.

4. Jonah Heim

I think we all knew Heim was good. He showed that in 2022, especially in the first half of the season when he should have been sent to the All Star Game. Heim has come back in 2023 and has taken his game to another level. It can be reasonably argued that Heim is the best catcher in the American League right now. What he is doing offensively and defensively is unmatched by anyone in this league. He has a .313 batting average which is good for fourth in the American League. He has the highest OPS for catchers at .887. He leads all AL catchers in RBI's with 31. Really the only catcher in the majors he is behind in these categories is Sean Murphy. He is having statistically the second best season for a catcher in all of baseball. He continues to be one of the best pitch framers in the game. He continues to be a stalwart defensively and at just 27-years of age he is just now entering his prime. The only question remaining for Heim is will he be able to hold up through the season and possibly into October. He has shown himself to be a front-line catcher. That is something Texas has not had since Mike Napoli back 2011-2012 and before that it was Pudge back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Having Heim behind the plate and in the lineup will make Bruce Bochy's job much easier going forward.

5. Josh Sborz

I was debating on who would be number five on this list. I decided I wanted someone from the bullpen. Sborz is the guy that everyone and I was a part of that group wanted to be off the roster. He was so maddening to watch. He had great stuff, but would leave it over the middle of the plate and watch it go over the fence. He would walk guys, and just give up runs so easily. I could not believe they did not release him after spring training. He was so bad in Arizona. He was placed on the IL to start the season with an ankle injury. Then in mid-April he was called up. Since being called up there have been no issues. He has had one "bad" appearance and that was against Arizona. He had already pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings, but was brought back for another inning and that is when he gave up three runs. He probably should have been lifted prior to that inning. He has been nails for the bullpen. He has pitched in 11 games, and has only been scored upon in two of those appearances. He has inherited seven runners on base and only allowed three of them to score. Tuesday night was another example of how well he has pitched. He came on in relief of Jonathan Hernandez. The previous three batters had went home run, hit by pitch, and home run to close the game from 6-1 to 6-4. Bochy brought on Sborz to put out the fire. Sborz got Austin Riley to pop out, got Eddie Rosario to ground out, and struck out Ozzie Albies to close out the inning. That is just what he has been doing consistently since being brought up. Hernandez and Leclerc have both had their struggles in the late innings, but Sborz has come on and has been able to get the job done. I have went from thinking he must go to thinking please bring Sborz in.

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