{"id":483221,"date":"2026-02-22T04:43:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T04:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483221\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T04:43:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T04:43:06","slug":"rangers-notes-foscue-helman-santos-nimmo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483221\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers Notes: Foscue, Helman, Santos, Nimmo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spring Training is the time for players to experiment at new positions, particularly when said players are fighting for spots on a 26-man roster.\u00a0 The Rangers\u2019 camp is no exception, as manager Skip Schumaker told reporters (including Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News<\/a>) that career infielder Justin Foscue<\/a> will get some work as an outfielder.<\/p>\n

Foscue has mostly been a designated hitter over his 19 career big league games, with a couple of appearances at first and second base.\u00a0 The bulk of his time over five seasons in Texas\u2019 farm system has come at second base, with a good chunk of time at both corner infield slots, and exactly zero appearances as an outfielder.<\/p>\n

As outlined by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News<\/a>, Foscue isn\u2019t being viewed as a full-time candidate for a position change, but the Rangers want to be able to use Foscue in a corner outfield slot if necessary.\u00a0 The starting outfield alignment of Brandon Nimmo<\/a>, Evan Carter<\/a>, and Wyatt Langford<\/a> is set, but the right-handed hitting Foscue could spell the lefty-swinging Nimmo in right field, or other lefty bats like Josh Smith<\/a> at second base or Joc Pederson<\/a> at DH.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I do what I\u2019m supposed to do offensively, it should take care of itself, regardless [of position],\u201d Foscue told Grant.\u00a0 \u201cBut having the ability to play outfield gives me some versatility with whatever matchups they want to throw out there, and it makes my game better.\u00a0 So I\u2019m obviously open to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 14th overall pick in the 2020 draft, Foscue has posted impressive numbers (.266\/.379\/.471 with 46 home runs) over 1235 Triple-A plate appearances, but he hasn\u2019t yet shown anything during his brief time in the majors.\u00a0 Foscue has only three hits over 53 PA in the Show, translating to a pitcher-like .059\/.094\/.098 slash line.\u00a0 More consistent playing time could help Foscue find a groove, but by the same token, it is hard for the Rangers to justify giving chances to a player who has thus far looked totally overmatched against Major League pitching.<\/p>\n

Foscue, Michael Helman<\/a>, Ezequiel Duran<\/a>, Sam Haggerty<\/a>, and minor league signings such as Mark Canha<\/a>, Tyler Wade<\/a>, Nick Pratto<\/a>, and Jonah Bride<\/a> are among the candidates competing for jobs on the Rangers\u2019 bench.\u00a0 Cody Freeman<\/a> was part of this mix before being sidelined<\/a> for 4-6 weeks by a lower back fracture.\u00a0 Helman is also dealing with an injury of an apparently much less serious nature, as Schumaker told McFarland and company that Helman was scratched from today\u2019s game due to soreness in his hip and groin area.<\/p>\n

In other injury news from the Texas camp, right-handed pitching prospect Winston Santos<\/a> will miss roughly four weeks after sustaining a fracture in his left hand.\u00a0 MLB.com\u2019s Kennedi Landry<\/a> was among those to report the news that Santos suffered the injury during a live batting practice session, when Santos\u2019 non-throwing hand was struck by a Kyle Higashioka<\/a> comebacker.<\/p>\n

Santos (who turns 24 in April) is no stranger to injuries, as back problems limited him to 17 1\/3 total innings at the Double-A and Triple-A levels in 2025.\u00a0 His 6.75 ERA in this small sample can probably be attributed to his bad back and an incredibly unlucky .528 BABIP, as Santos still had impressive secondary metrics like a 33.3% strikeout rate and a nine percent walk rate.<\/p>\n

MLB Pipeline ranks Santos as the third-best prospect in the Rangers\u2019 farm system, with Baseball America ranking him seventh (behind infielder Sebastian Walcott<\/a> and five other right-handed pitchers).\u00a0 The two outlets are split as to whether Santos\u2019 changeup or slider is his second-best offering, but his 97mph fastball with a ton of break is seen as a plus pitch.\u00a0 There\u2019s a decent chance Santos will make his Major League debut at some point in 2026 as at least a bullpen arm, though missing a big chunk of Spring Training is an unfortunate setback for the young righty.<\/p>\n

On the flip side of the injury coin, Nimmo\u2019s first spring in a Rangers uniform has allowed the team to get its first look at Nimmo\u2019s purposely limited Spring Training regimen.\u00a0 Evan Grant<\/a> details how Nimmo played in only 37 total spring games with the Mets from 2022-25, as the outfielder has focused more on workouts and live at-bats in controlled situations (like live BP sessions) rather than in-game action.<\/p>\n

The change may have contributed to Nimmo\u2019s increased durability.\u00a0 Plagued by injuries in the early portion of his Mets career, Nimmo went from player who had trouble staying on the field to a veritable workhorse, as he has played in 609 of a possible 648 regular-season games over the last four seasons.\u00a0 While Nimmo hasn\u2019t been entirely healthy<\/a> during this time, the results speak for themselves, as Nimmo has hit .259\/.346\/.434 with 88 homers over 2670 PA since Opening Day 2022.\u00a0 He\u2019ll look to continue that production in his first season in Texas after being dealt for Marcus Semien<\/a> in a one-for-one swap<\/a> back in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spring Training is the time for players to experiment at new positions, particularly when said players are fighting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[58367,222608,222609,363,99,222610],"class_list":["post-483221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-brandon-nimmo","tag-justin-foscue","tag-michael-helman","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-winston-santos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}