The most pressing issues to watch in Surprise

On Tuesday, the Rangers pitchers and catchers, all 42 of them, will step on to a field at the Surprise Recreation Campus, do some calisthenics, toss some baseballs and field some grounders.

And for a moment, everyone will become a romantic about the grandeur of the game.

Five days later, the rest of the spring squad join (another 22 players), bringing the camp size to 64. By then, the romance will have faded just a bit and only the questions about the upcoming season will remain. And funny thing, or maybe not, but there might be more questions than players in camp.

Fans cheer during the fifth inning of a spring training game between the Texas Rangers and...

Rangers

What impact will a new manager have on them? Are the Rangers still contenders? Or is a rebuild on the horizon? Will the Rangers’ body language be better? More importantly, will the hitting? Did Corey Seager and Marcus Semien have a spat? Where will Evan Carter play if he’s healthy enough to play? Will Kumar Rocker seize a job in the starting rotation? Who is doing what in the bullpen? We can go on here, but you probably get the gist, and we are probably about to wear out the question mark key.

There will be no shortage of storylines. So, we’ve sorted through them to find the most pertinent surrounding the most pressing issues on the team. Here are the top ones to watch this spring:

Welcome to the Hunger Games

Ask Chris Young what the most important thing he will be looking for in spring training and he doesn’t mention a player, a position or a stat.

It’s a look.

“I want to see hunger,” Young said. “I want to see the intensity of the work, the collective drive. With great teams, day in and day out, it’s palpable. You can feel it. There is a common purpose that is both spoken and unspoken in the winning environments I’ve been around. Everybody knows their role and knows they have a job to do.

“We have a lot to prove after the last two years. I want to see a hungry group that knows how good we can be if we play to our capabilities.”

Every Rangers fan knows what Young is speaking of. The last two Ranger teams often appeared to be simply performing tasks on a baseball field rather than doing them with both intention and intensity. Perhaps the Rangers got caught up in a two-year hangover from their World Series win. Perhaps it was the makeup of the roster and partly the makeup of a veteran manager who trusted his players to more clearly understand the gravity of their situation and act on it on their own.

Either way, the job of establishing that hunger falls to new manager Skip Schumaker. And no matter how many seasons his tenure lasts, this may very well be his single-most important spring and his single-most important task. This spring will be about establishing “culture.” Not “his” culture, per se, but a winning culture.

And you don’t create it. You can plant seeds. You can nurture it. But it must grow organically. It begins with his first communication to the full team ahead of the first full-squad workout on Feb. 15.

“It’s really important for my staff and myself to get players on board, to set expectations and to figure out who we are. I really believe in culture. That can really move the needle. Establishing that culture from Day 1 is really important. Defining our standards and talking about culture will be discussed from the start.”

The Latz man standing

You’d have to go back to the “aughts” to find a Rangers reliever who has made as compelling a case to move to the rotation as Jacob Latz did last year. The C.J. Wilson experiment worked out pretty well, as we recall.

Times have changed, however.

When Wilson launched his campaign after the 2009 season, the Rangers were desperate to find starters by any means necessary. Now: The Rangers are returning the core of the rotation with the best ERA in baseball. Times – and needs – have changed.

The Rangers do go to camp with an open spot at the back of the rotation, for which Latz will be afforded a chance to compete. But they also have Rocker (the No. 3 pick in the 2022 draft) in the competition and have hope Cody Bradford could be back by May. They may have other viable options in the rotation.

They may have more questions about how they will finish games after another bullpen overhaul that included lots of additions, but no definitive candidate to close games.

In eight starts last year, including a strong end-of-the-season performance at Cleveland, Latz had a 2.72 ERA, but his xERA (expected ERA) in that role was 4.51, slightly higher than the league average. As a reliever, however, he held opponents to a .563 OPS in designated high-leverage situations, according to Baseball-Reference. It ranked in the top 20% among relievers. And Latz has the ability to pitch more than an inning in relief, an asset that could prove especially valuable early in the season if Nathan Eovaldi, coming back from sports hernia surgery, and perhaps another starter are closely monitored.

“One of the bright spots last season was how Jack [Leiter] and Jacob finished the season in Cleveland in what was essentially a playoff atmosphere for the Guardians,” Young said. “Jake really showed me what he can do, but he could also be a back-end leverage arm. And where he starts the year may not be where he ultimately finishes it.”

In a perfect world, it would leave the Rangers spending the final days of spring evaluating if Latz is more valuable by pitching five or six innings in one outing per turn of the rotation or in two.

For that to be the conversation, first the Rangers must maintain health throughout spring, which is no small consideration. Second, Rocker must follow in the steps of Leiter a year ago. Leiter came to spring training in 2025 with no real footing, earned a job with a strong performance and carried that right through the season.

For Rocker to follow, he’s got to show off a third pitch, preferably something offspeed, that moves downward. So many pitches on the same plane led to too much hard contact. He ranked in the bottom five percentile in average exit velocity and percentage of “barrels,” per MLB Statcast.

And while Latz is auditioning for the rotation, the Rangers must sort through a host of bullpen arms to figure out roles. Robert Garcia, who figures to have a high-leverage role of some sort, will be out of camp during Mexico’s run in the World Baseball Classic. But the Rangers aren’t sure how they will deploy (in alphabetical order): Tyler Alexander, Alexis Diaz, Jakob Junis, Chris Martin and Cole Winn. And they must run through contenders that include Rule 5 pick Carter Baumler, Marc Church, Luis Curvelo, Gavin Collyer and Emiliano Teodo. Josh Sborz will join that group if he shows he’s recovered his full velocity after shoulder surgery. It’s a lot.

But for all the reputation Bruce Bochy had as a bullpen-whisperer, Schumaker has some skills, too. He identified Tanner Scott while with Miami and entrusted him with a late-inning role. He’s now in the second year of a four-year, $72 million deal with the Dodgers.

“It starts with the rotation, first,” Schumaker said. “That will have a determination on who is in the bullpen and some of the leverage roles. We’ve got some intriguing arms and some have some ninth-inning experience. I feel like we have some options.”

Realignment talk

Center field will be the center of attention.

We’ve used that line before, but for wholly different reasons. In the past, the Rangers often struggled to find a center fielder. It’s been one of the most transient positions on the diamond for them this century. This time around, though, they might – might – have three. Alas, abundance can also be an issue. Only one can play the position.

Carter feels more comfortable in center field than the corners and has been considered the first option, when healthy, since the start of 2024. But health and effectiveness against lefties have been such an issue that Carter has started only two more games in center (53) than Wyatt Langford (51) over the last two years, and Langford has a better Defensive Runs Saved metric there than Carter. Brandon Nimmo has started more games in center over his career (515) than anywhere else in the outfield. He’s perhaps lost a step of range over 10 years, but he’s still considered better in center than on the corners.

“I don’t want to say it’s a battle, but we’ve got to figure out who is going to be in center,” Schumaker said. “We want to create the best, healthiest team we can have for 162 games. I haven’t seen either Evan or Wyatt for 162 in center. We’re going to try to figure out what that looks like.”

Most of the questions, however, revolved around Carter. First, there is the issue of his health. His chronic back condition was still clearly an issue last spring, leading to him being left off the opening day roster. Beyond that, there is concern about his ability to face left-handers. He’s had only 68 big league plate appearances against lefties and has a .087/.191/.087/.278 slash line, though his handful of at-bats last year were more competitive. Beyond the numbers, having him sit against lefties might be a way to help him better maintain his health.

But if he’s going to platoon, do the Rangers want to swap out center fielders when he does. If they consider that, are they willing to slide Langford to center when Carter rests? Or should they give Langford, one of their most reliable producers the last two years, one position and not shuffle him around based on others’ needs. And, if so, should the guy who is on the field the most have the most priority in center?

For the record, the Rangers had been more reluctant to use Langford in center in the past over concerns that it would take more of a toll on his body, given that he’s of a larger, blockier build. That is not a major concern for Schumaker. Even if it was, the argument could be made that by being available for more than twice as many games as Carter the last two years, Langford should get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to durability.

“We’ve thought about different ways to optimize our outfield,” Young said. “We love the options we have, but still haven’t landed on a firm answer yet. We’d love to see Evan Carter be our everyday center fielder, play 130 games and hit left-handers. We do think, at some point, his approach is going to allow him to do that. But some of it may have to be worked out in spring.”

The Comeback

Why, yes, as a matter of fact, the Rangers offense did underachieve last year. Massively, you could even say.

Of course, it will be an area that gets a lot of attention during spring.

Quite frankly, Young was paying attention last spring and didn’t like what he saw. It was a big factor in the early season changes he made to the coaching staff. You can bet he’s going to be quite tuned in this year to a number of players.

But perhaps no duo moreso than Joc Pederson and Josh Jung.

Both are coming off miserable offensive seasons. In Pederson’s case, it was the worst year of a 12-year career; in Jung’s case, he took significant steps backward in approach and plate discipline. That showed up significantly when he had count-leverage over a pitcher.

How these guys will be evaluated during spring differs. Pederson, in the second year of a two-year deal, could become expendable early in the season if he struggles. But he’s likely to at least get the chance, based on track record to prove it once the season starts. Jung, who is in his first year of salary arbitration, could find himself locked into a position battle with Cody Freeman at third base.

If, in fact, there is competition for a starting spot, it might be more tangible at third base rather than second, where Josh Smith is the leading candidate. Smith’s biggest issue may be keeping the job, given his second-half fades, but he’s got more to fall back on in performance over the last two seasons than does Jung. Smith has a .716 OPS in 293 games since the start of 2024; Jung a .693 OPS in 177 games.

Young wants to see hunger across the field. You can be sure he’s going to look closely for it at these spots.

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