Rangers must confront grim Alejandro Osuna reality before it's too late

After he was called up last September, Alejandro Osuna showed a fiery, energetic passion that earned him the moniker of "little rascal" alongside Cody Freeman. Due to more injuries to players like Wyatt Langford and Evan Carter, Osuna has seen even more playing time in 2026 and has endeared himself to the Rangers' fanbase with his scrappy play and willingness to work deep into counts.

Unfortunately, some flaws in the young left fielder's game also need to be acknowledged and dealt with - particularly, his subpar defensive metrics and his lack of ability to hit for any power.

The Rangers can't afford to keep accepting Alejandro Osuna's deficiencies for much longer

According to Thomas Nestico (@TJStats on X), Osuna's -7 Runs Value by Position makes him the worst defensive left fielder in the entire league. Run Value by Position measures the relative difficulty of playing a specific fielding position by assigning a run value, allowing players to be compared equally.

Osuna's -7 means that he has allowed seven more runs than the average player at his position across the league. He is very good at coming in on balls and has made some nice sliding catches doing it, but he lacks in areas like arm strength and the ability to get to balls in the gap and in the corner. When a ball is hit to him with a runner on second, he is virtually assured to score because of Osuna's minus arm. And that number would likely be even worse if he were playing in left every day.

Also, if the Rangers are going to stick with Joc Pederson's power bat in the leadoff spot, it is tough to justify having a guy with a .299 slugging percentage down in your lineup. Slapping singles is great, but of Osuna's 42 hits this season, he has just four doubles and hit his only home run of the year about ten days ago. That is 37 singles and 5 extra-base hits.

If you're not going to use him to get on base as a leadoff hitter, then his lack of pop becomes even more pronounced, hitting 7th, 8th, or 9th in the order.

Skip Schumaker and the fans love his infectious affinity for the game, and you can tell he's a great teammate, but this is a team that is going to be in a war in the second half for a postseason berth, and Osuna's weaknesses will be exposed if they aren't handled. The bottom line is that you can't be a one-trick pony offensively and a negative on defense and consistently provide value. A tough decision could be looming unless Osuna improves quickly.

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