These 3 non-roster invitees could make the Texas Rangers' Opening Day roster

These NRIs have the best chance to make the Texas Rangers Opening Day roster

The Texas Rangers over the last several years have made use of their non-roster invites in Spring Training. Players such as Bartolo Colon, Wandy Rodriguez, Ian Kennedy, Matt Moore, and Charlie Culberson have parlayed non-roster invites to camp to a spot on the major league roster. This season the team will be taking a look at many non-roster invites that were free agents and those that are in the minors. When the season starts though there will likely only be room on the roster for maybe one or two of these players. The three non-roster players that likely have the best shot at breaking camp with the Rangers are Jackson Frazier (who previously went by Clint), Danny Duffy, and Kyle Cody.

Let's start with Frazier. The former New York Yankees' top prospect has been in the wilderness figuratively speaking the last two years. He was a former first-round pick of the Cleveland Guardians back in 2013. He was traded to the Yankees in 2016 in the Andrew Miller trade that nearly won the Guardians the 2016 World Series. He came up in 2017 with the Yankees. He really hit his stride in 2019 and in the pandemic shortened 2020 season. He had a .267 batting average in both years and hit 12 home runs in 2019 and eight home runs in 39 games in 2020. He peaked in 2020 with a .511 slugging percentage and .394 on-base percentage.

The talent is there, but he dropped off precipitously in 2021 and 2022. He had five home runs in 66 games and a .186 batting average in 2021. Then followed that up in 2022 by spending most of the season in the minors in the Chicago Cubs organization where he hit .190 with five home runs. He also played 19 games for the Cubs and had a .216 batting average and no home runs. The Rangers do have a need in left field and if Frazier can rediscover the swing that saw him hit 20 home runs between 2019 and 2020 he will make the team.