{"id":598085,"date":"2026-02-28T13:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T13:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/598085\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T13:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T13:16:13","slug":"team-mexico-manager-benji-gil-raves-about-rangers-alejandro-osuna-hes-a-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/598085\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Mexico manager Benji Gil raves about Rangers\u2019 Alejandro Osuna: \u2018He\u2019s a winner\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The World Baseball Classic is almost upon us and the Rangers have a few players participating for their respective countries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Team Mexico\u2019s manager for the WBC is former Ranger Benji Gil, and he\u2019ll be managing Rangers outfielder Alejandro Osuna<\/a> and relief pitcher Robert Garcia during the tournament. Gil joined the SportsDay Rangers podcast this week<\/a> and had some notable praise for Osuna and gave some insight on how he plans to use Garcia.<\/p>\n

Below are the highlights of the conversation surrounding Osuna, the WBC and more, edited lightly for clarity.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a great winter for you with Jalisco and then winning the Caribbean World Series with Mexico Red. While you were down there, you had Alejandro Osuna for a month with Jalisco. What were your takeaways from watching this kid?<\/p>\n

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Benji Gil: I\u2018ll tell you what: pro at-bats. We were trying to win, obviously. He got there for the last two weeks of the regular season and then the postseason. And he did everything in his power, I mean, he hit seventh in the lineup, he hit second lineup, he hit fifth, I think, sixth, and then he ended up being our leadoff hitter for a while too. We played left, right, center, and he just got there and was like: \u201cI\u2019m here to win, whatever you need, I\u2019m all in.\u201d And we said: \u201cAlright, look, we\u2019re not gonna talk home runs. We\u2019re not gonna talk that type of stuff. Just give us quality at-bats and be the best winning player you can be.\u201d And he was awesome. I mean, bunting, stealing bases, played excellent defense. Honestly, he played better defense in center field that I was expecting. And he just bought in. He bought into everything that it took to win. And I tell you what, the Rangers have a good one. He\u2019s like a sponge. He wants to learn. He wants to get better and we talked about it after we had won, and he didn\u2019t stay with us for the Caribbean Series so he could get ready for spring training and to be a part of Team Mexico for the World Baseball Classic. But he was like: \u201cMan, winning is fun. I want to do this my whole career.\u201d And he\u2019s got a good bloodline on top of it. His dad was a pitcher in Mexico for a long time. Obviously his brother, but yeah, he\u2019s a winner. He\u2019s a winner. He\u2019s a good one.<\/p>\n

Osuna talked about watching his brother in the WBC in 2017 and how it became a dream for him to represent Mexico, but he also talked about how excited he was to have time around Randy Arozarena, Jarren Duran and Alek Thomas. In this environment where young guys kind of get to be teammates with veteran guys and there\u2019s the connection of heritage, how much do guys get from the learning experience from one another in that environment?<\/p>\n

Gil: I think if you take what he\u2019s been able to grab onto that last month in Mexico, and now this next three weeks coming up, I think it\u2019s like learning playoff baseball on steroids. I expect our team to do really well, and I think he\u2019s going to get some invaluable experiences. I think he\u2019s going to go back and he\u2019s going to be so pumped up to just be able to do anything that he can to help the Rangers win. I talked to Bobby Witt about his experience the last WBC, where he didn\u2019t really play much, I think he only got two at-bats, and he pinch ran, but he said that experience just changed him as a player, and it changed his hunger, and it changed the things that were important to him, right? Obviously, yeah, you want to make money and you want to do well personally, but it just puts into perspective why we play team sports, right? And to be a part of a team and to be a part of something bigger than just, playing baseball at a high level.<\/p>\n

You have Robert Garcia in your bullpen<\/a>, how do you envision using him out there?<\/p>\n

Gil: Obviously, he\u2019s too good to be a situational guy. And then we have Victor Vodnik. If there\u2019s an inning, a seventh inning is a lefty, righty, lefty, then that\u2019s probably when we use him in the seventh. If it\u2019s the eighth inning, that lefties might be coming up, or there\u2019s a possibility of a pinch hitter that would be a lefty, then I\u2019ll use him there so that we stop other teams from bringing in whoever they might have that\u2019s a good bench pinch hitter, right? So I see him as a seventh, eighth inning guy, depending on the matchups.<\/p>\n

How do you handicap this year\u2019s WBC and especially for Team Mexico\u2019s chances?<\/p>\n

Gil: I think three teams have gotten better. Dominican is better. They were great last time, but they\u2019ve gotten better. I think they\u2019re going to be more focused and hungrier. The US has gotten better, especially on the pitching side. I think they don\u2019t want the title to leave the country. And I think Japan is really strong as well. I really do like our chances. I know maybe we don\u2019t compare to them on paper, at the end of the day, baseball is the one sport that a really good team can beat a super team on any given day. I really believe that. Maybe their pitching isn\u2019t great, or our pitching is really good that day. It could be, you put together a couple good at-bats, a ground ball with eyes or a bloop hit, and that could be the difference in a game, especially games where the pitching and the defense is good, anything can happen in a game like that. So I think we\u2019re good enough to compete with anybody, and if we\u2019re competing, with a team we have, I believe we can beat anybody. If you ask me, can we beat the US or the Dominican six games out of 10? Probably not. Can we beat them one game on one day? Absolutely.<\/p>\n

Texas Rangers top 30 prospects: No. 25 Maxton Martin has power to the max<\/a>Clayton Kershaw 2.0? Three reasons why Texas Rangers love ace-in-waiting MacKenzie Gore<\/a><\/p>\n

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