This one spring training stat showcases why Rangers offense will be better in 2026

Seems the offensive adjustments implemented from the Texas Rangers' new coaching staff might make a difference in their approach for the 2026 regular season and it's showing throughout Cactus League play.

That approach: patience in the batter's box.

Rangers walk rate a positive sign this spring

One of the biggest struggles for the Rangers offense over the past two seasons was the team's inability to lay off walks, swing for the fences and chase pitchers out of the zone. Heading into spring that, the priority from Skip Schumaker and his hitting coaches Alex Cintron and Justin Viele was to get away from it.

This spring that approach has been highly successful, leading all of Major League Baseball with 136 free passes in only 24 games (with six games left) changing to a contact, high on-base percentage approach at the plate.

Last spring, the Rangers only had 103 walks, due to a 33% chase rate. Not only is this spring's number down to 25%, they've also decreased their swing-and-miss and strikeout rate by five percent, while doubling their walk rate.

Increased walk rate has led to better at-bats, higher offensive output

The selective at-bats from the Rangers this season has resulted in positives. Not only has it shown Schumaker that his plan is being bought into by the players but that they could find success doing so.

This spring, Texas leads in OBP (378), while being top five in runs (147), average (.278), RBIs (142) and OPS (.333) with many more statistical categories sitting in the top 10 with less than a week of games left on the schedule. Hard to take such a deep dive into the stats from spring training as it remains a small sample size and it's easy for any numbers of players to catch fire and not pan out in the regular season.

Regardless, it's hard to not be optimistic about the success we are seeing from this Rangers' lineup to close out spring. Because while spring stats aren't worth diving too much into, a lot of baseball has to do with a team getting hot at the right time.

Their 22-2 win over San Diego this past weekend is one example of just how successful this lineuo could be on any given day. A lot of the team's top options heading into the season were playing and while they were facing the Padres' B-squad and a pitcher that didn't pitch in 2025,