ARLINGTON — The Texas Rangers are now left to answer a question that they haven’t had to ask once in the last four seasons: How do they replace a player that’s never had to be replaced?
Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien is expected to miss 4-6 weeks with a fractured third metatarsal and a Lisfranc sprain in his left foot after he fouled a pitch off of it in Thursday’s loss to the Kansas City Royals. The recovery timeline almost guarantees that the Rangers will need to qualify for the playoffs to give Semien a chance to play again this calendar year.
“Bad luck, bad news,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said before Monday’s game vs. the Los Angeles Angels at Globe Life Field. “He’s our ironman and he went down twice on that trip. There’s nothing you can do. You get so many other injuries where you wonder if you could’ve done something different. These, that’s just bad luck.”
Semien, who hadn’t been placed on the injured list since April 15, 2017 prior to Saturday’s assignment, missed only six games in his four seasons with the Rangers before this latest ailment. His injury puts the Rangers in uncharted territory as they look to replace him with 30 games left in the season.
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The Rangers plan to rotate infielders Ezequiel Duran, Cody Freeman and Josh Smith at second base in Semien’s absence, Bochy said Monday, with matchups and performance as the biggest factors in playing time. Freeman played second base Saturday, Ezequiel Duran played second Sunday and Smith led off and started at second Monday vs. Angels right-hander José Soriano.
“We have some good candidates,” Bochy said. “You hate to lose one of your guys — and he’s one of our big guys — but we think we can piece it together here.”
Freeman, a rookie third baseman with 29 big league at-bats under his belt, played second base at Etiwanda (Calif.) High before the Rangers selected him in the fourth round of the 2019 MLB draft. Smith has operated as the club’s super utility man each of the last two seasons and has played every position outside of catcher and pitcher. He’s only played eight professional games at second base but Bochy described him as a “really good infielder wherever you put him” despite the lack of experience.
Duran has the most professional reps (208 games) at second base and has been the hottest bat amongst the three with a .378/.404/.467 slash line in his last 15 games played this month. The 26-year-old has cut his chase rate down from 37.7% to 32.1% since Aug. 1 and improved his timing against fastballs. He hit .225 and swung-and-missed at 24.5% of all fastballs thrown at him in his first 45 games played but has hit .435 and whiffed just 13% of the time in his last 15 games.
“I feel really confident right now,” Duran said Monday through interpreter Raul Cardenas. “I’m seeing the ball well and I think I’ve been working really hard. Everything is kind of coming into place for me.”
Duran played a substitute shortstop role two seasons ago when Corey Seager missed a month’s worth of time in the first half of the season with a hamstring strain. Duran, then a rookie, posted a .974 OPS from May 1-June 30 that season as the de facto everyday shortstop.
“It’s great because I get to see more at bats,” Duran said. “The more at bats I see the better off I feel and the more I play the better off I play. I don’t want to come in because people are hurt, but, I’m getting the opportunity and I want to do the best I can to help the team win.”
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