For Travis Jankowski, spring 2026 feels familiar, yet entirely exhausting in a new way.
After suiting up as a player in the 2025 season, the 34-year-old was tapped by Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker to serve as the team’s first-base coach.
Now, he is learning the “mental exhaustion” of the coaching side.
“Spring training for a player is pretty nice. You get off days. You play three innings and then you go home and hang out,” Jankowski said after a day with the team at their spring training in Arizona.
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“As a coach, you’ve got to be there at 4:30 in the morning and you don’t get home until 5:30 at night – it’s 13-hour days in the hot sun,” he said. “It’s been fun but crazy,”
In his Major League career, Jankowski played for eight different teams and became known as a defensive-minded outfielder with long, flowing blond hair. As a coach, he’s returning to the organization where he had the biggest moment of his career.
During the Rangers’ 2023 championship run, Jankowski stepped into the starting lineup for an injured Adolis García in Game 4. Starting in right field, he delivered a crucial 2-for-4 performance with a two-run double that helped propel Texas to their first championship.
Jankowski, who finished last year with the New York Mets, said he was staying in shape in hopes of getting picked up by another team as a player. Instead, a call from Schumaker has him preparing for the season as a coach.
“The comfort level is incredible,” Jankowksi said of Schumaker, who was his first base coach during his first year in the majors with the San Diego Padres. “Knowing who he is and how much he cares about people, I thought it would be a good fit.”
The move into coaching wasn’t entirely unexpected. During his 2021 stint with the Phillies, Jankowski realized he enjoyed mentoring younger players. When Schumaker called him this past winter, the timing was right.
While Jankowski is busy mastering the nuances of the coaching box, he is holding onto at least one trademark from his playing days – his hair.
“I probably took 3 or 4 inches off,” Jankowski said, “But I’ve still got ‘the flow.’”
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