Schumaker has no trouble relating to players

SURPRISE, Ariz. — The injury bug (and just, like, the regular bug) swept through the Texas Rangers spring training clubhouse this week.

Third baseman Josh Jung will be out a week-and-a-half with a grade one adductor strain. Infielder Justin Foscue will likely miss more time than that with a hamstring strain. Shortstop Corey Seager was out a few days with an illness, catcher Kyle Higashioka was down with some back soreness and roster hopeful Cody Freeman will be sidelined multiple weeks with a lumbar stress reaction.

The perils of spring provided others with opportunities. Infielder Cam Cauley, a 23-year-old prospect, has seen significant time at shortstop with Seager out and turned in a .364/.391/.682 slash line through eight games. Non-roster invitee Tyler Wade, whose seen time at shortstop, center field, right field and designated hitter, is 9 for 15 in seven games.

It’ll add some fuel to the battle for bench spots as camp reaches its midpoint.

Rangers

Here’s what else we learned this week.

The new boss is relatable: Or, maybe, all infielders live identical lives. We’ll assume for the sake of this point that it’s the former.

The first two weeks of full-squad camp have shown, at least in the cases of infielders Josh Smith, Cody Freeman and Cauley, that first-year manager Skip Schumaker has a story from his own career that mirrors his players’ circumstances. Schumaker, like Smith, once had to navigate a full-time switch to second base.

“He told me he wasn’t really good at it,” Smith said with a laugh. “Maybe I’ll go back and watch some film on it.”

Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker (right) talks with players, from left, Jake Burger, Joc...

Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker (right) talks with players, from left, Jake Burger, Joc Pederson, Wyatt Langford, Brandon Nimmo and Corey Seager in a dugout during a spring training workout at the team’s training facility on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, in Surprise, Ariz.

Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer

Schumaker, like Freeman, got injured (twice, technically) during spring training while in the midst of a roster spot competition.

“My whole career, I was that guy fighting for that last spot,” Schumaker said. “It’s hard to put into perspective sometimes for a guy in Cody’s position.

And, like Cauley, Schumaker was also left off a club’s 40-man roster one winter and went unpicked in the Rule 5 draft.

“He gets it,” Cauley said. “He’s been through it. He’s gone through a lot of things that players go through. He knows how to give you the info and an outlook to look at that helps you get it out of your headspace. It lets you play free, which is cool. He brought me in his office last week and had a talk with me. Just having a manager come to me and give me a few words of encouragement, it really does mean a lot.”

Check another box for team culture.

It’s all about strikes in the bullpen: Seriously, if you were to sit in on any of Schumaker’s morning news conferences, it quite literally is. Schumaker has stressed the importance of strikes — specifically a pitcher’s ability to throw them — in every conversation about roster construction.

The most recent instance was Sunday morning when he was asked about right-handed pitcher Michel Otañez and his 98 mph fastball. The first word out of his mouth was, yes, strikes.

“I know I’m repetitive when I say that,” Schumaker said, “but if he throws strikes, he’s going to be really good because he has the stuff.”

It’s hardly a novel concept, but it’s a priority for the Rangers as they’ve rebuilt their bullpen in each of the last two years. The club prioritized strike-throwers when they assembled a relief staff on a budget last winter and, in return, were rewarded with a bullpen whose 63.8% first-pitch strike percentage was the best in baseball, whose 44.6% strike zone percentage was the fourth-best in the American League and whose 3.63 ERA was the fourth-best in the AL.

Asked Friday if there’s been a more concerted effort to prioritize strikes, Schumaker acknowledged that baseball might’ve swung too far in the direction of a chase for velocity.

“You see how hard you can throw it, and then organizations — not ours — end up signing guys or drafting guys because of the velo,” Schumaker said. “Then you get them in the system and it’s ‘ball four, ball four.’ I don’t care how hard you throw if you can’t throw strikes. It’s nothing to me.”

Keep that in mind as you fill out your at-home opening day roster projections.

Speaking of strikes: One guy who knows how to throw them — right-handed pitcher Jacob deGrom — could make his Cactus League debut in the near future. Schumaker said that deGrom threw 30 pitches in a side session last week and should pitch in a game “really soon.”

The plan is for deGrom to make three-to-four exhibition starts before camp breaks. He made only three last spring and parlayed that into a 30-start, 2.97 ERA, All-Star season.

It seems as though the 37-year-old two-time Cy Young award winner knows how to prepare himself.

Rangers top 30 prospects: No. 23 Paulino Santana had an off 2025, but time is on his side