{"id":538001,"date":"2026-03-13T15:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T15:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/538001\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T15:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T15:10:10","slug":"are-the-rangers-a-good-defensive-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/538001\/","title":{"rendered":"Are The Rangers A Good Defensive Team?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part of a series of articles previewing the defensive performance of all 30 MLB teams by asking the question \u2026 are they good? To see the full series, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2025 Team Defensive Runs Saved Rank: 1st<\/p>\n

Team Strengths<\/p>\n

The Rangers lost a couple of their best defensive players in second baseman Marcus Semien and right fielder Adolis Garcia. However, they still have left fielder Wyatt Langford, who has ranked second in Runs Saved at that position in each of the last two seasons. Langford\u2019s range Runs Saved jumped from 1 to 12 from 2024 to 2025, which offset his Outfield Arm Runs Saved dipping from 6 to 0. The good thing about Langford is that he can play center field too. In 60 games there, he has 6 Runs Saved.<\/p>\n

Most Defensive Runs Saved \u2013 Left Field \u2013 Last 2 Seasons<\/p>\n

Player
\nRuns Saved<\/p>\n

Steven Kwan
\n32<\/p>\n

Wyatt Langford
\n24<\/p>\n

Jarren Duran
\n17<\/p>\n

Ian Happ
\n17<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Corey Seager took a somewhat unexpected jump in defensive performance, ranking third among shortstops with 16 Runs Saved last season. Seager had never totaled more than 6 Runs Saved there in any previous season, so 2027 will help determine if 2026 was a fluke. Seager isn\u2019t going to wow you with great plays but he is going to turn batted balls into outs at a high rate.<\/p>\n

Corey Seager Defensive Runs Saved at Shortstop \u2013 Last 5 Seasons<\/p>\n

Year
\nRuns Saved<\/p>\n

2021
\n-1<\/p>\n

2022
\n-4<\/p>\n

2023
\n5<\/p>\n

2024
\n4<\/p>\n

2025
\n16<\/p>\n

The Rangers could also be pretty good at catcher if they can get the best out of free agent signee Danny Jansen, who has had as few as -11 Runs Saved at that position and as many as 12 (and 6 last season). Kyle Higashioka is a good catching partner. He\u2019s caught at least 60 games in each of the last five seasons and not had a negative Runs Saved total.<\/p>\n

Team Weaknesses<\/p>\n

Fans who liked the deterrence of Garcia\u2019s arm in right field are probably going to have a hard time with Brandon Nimmo, who is not known for his throwing. Nimmo last played right field with regularity in 2018 but is going to play there in 2026. His range stats are fine\/good for a corner outfielder.<\/p>\n

Other than that, the Rangers aren\u2019t going to be putting themselves in bad defensive lineups. The spots that aren\u2019t strong enough to be strengths are mostly rated average or slightly above it by the numbers (Jake Burger at first base, Evan Carter in center field). Josh Jung has -6 Runs Saved at third base the last two seasons but we\u2019ve seen what he was capable of in past postseasons.<\/p>\n

Other Things To Know<\/p>\n

Second base will be an interesting spot to watch. Semien\u2019s departure is a prominent one. Josh Smith is listed on FanGraphs as the primary starter against right-handed pitching. He\u2019s played 10 games there in the last four seasons.<\/p>\n

Are the Rangers A Good Defensive Team?<\/p>\n

Yes, but given the two departures and Seager\u2019s likelihood of regressing, I wouldn\u2019t pick the Rangers as the Runs Saved leader for 2026. They seem a likely team to be Top 10, perhaps Top 5 if things go right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Part of a series of articles previewing the defensive performance of all 30 MLB teams by asking the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-538001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}