SURPRISE, Ariz. — First things first. There does not seem to be much question about the leadoff spot for the Texas Rangers.
Even before the team’s first full-squad workout began Sunday morning, Skip Schumaker said he expects there’s a “pretty good” chance new right fielder Brandon Nimmo will top the lineup.
“I have a pretty good idea about it,” Schumaker said when asked about the top spot, which, like almost everything else about the offense last year, didn’t live up to expectations. “He’s been pretty good at it for a long time. He kind of changes the dynamic of the game with slug plus on base. He can steal bases. He can face right-handers and lefties. So, yeah, there’s a pretty good chance.”
A year ago, when the Rangers used eight different leadoff hitters, the top spot was the tip of the iceberg for an underwhelming offense. The leaodff spot ranked 27th of 30 teams in on-base percentage at .305, 28 points below league average. In OPS, it was worse: 29th at .669, more than 80 points below league average.
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The Rangers moved Marcus Semien, who had held the spot from 2022-24, down in the order after an awful first month and then tried a lot of auditions. Josh Smith, who has the lead to be the everyday second baseman, ended up taking a team-high 88 starts in the leadoff spot. In addition, six other hitters got at least one start in the leadoff spot. The Rangers hadn’t used as many as eight different hitters in the leadoff spot since 2016.
The issue with Smith is that he’s a decidedly worse against lefties than right-handed hitters. He had a .502 OPS against lefties; .755 against right-handers. Nimmo is much more platoon-neutral. He had a .773 OPS against right-handers last year and a .732 vs. lefties. He has a .759 OPS against lefties for his career. To use Smith at the top of the lineup would likely require the Rangers to shuffle the leadoff hitter against lefties, thus creating more moving parts. Nimmo can face both lefties and right-handers.
“I don’t really, really see it as competition, because he’s going to play a lot, but we’re also trying to figure out what’s the best spot to protect other guys, too,” Schumaker said.
Nimmo, who turns 33 on the second day of the regular season, has more plate appearances in the leadoff spot than any other spot in the lineup for his career, but had moved lower in the New York Mets lineup the last two seasons with Francisco Lindor getting more time at the top. A year ago, Nimmo had most of his at-bats in the Nos. 4-5 spots.
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