Last month’s Marcus Semien-for-Brandon Nimmo swap created a hole at second base in Arlington, but the Rangers don’t plan on going outside the organization to find help at the position. Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports reports that Texas currently plans to fill that void internally.
That should be good news for 28-year-old Josh Smith, who’s bounced all over the diamond in a utility role over the past few seasons but now looks like a strong candidate for regular work at second base — at least against right-handed pitching. The lefty-swinging former second-round pick was a roughly average hitter in 2025 and a fair bit better than that in 2024. Over the past two seasons, he’s slashed a combined .254/.336/.380 (107 wRC+) with 23 homers, 53 doubles, three triples and 23 stolen bases in 1155 plate appearances (293 games).
Second base has actually been Smith’s least-frequent position of the many in which he’s dabbled at the MLB level. He’s played just 41 innings there, although part of the reason for that is Semien’s iron man status at the position. Semien missed a total of four games over his first three seasons in Texas, leaving few opportunities for anyone else at second base. He “only” appeared in 127 games this season, but Texas was also using Smith at the hot corner and in the outfield to help cover for other injuries, so he appeared in just four games at second base. Cody Freeman, Dylan Moore and Ezequiel Duran were more frequent options there in place of Semien.
Duran and Freeman both remain with the organization and are on the 40-man roster. That’s also true of former first-round pick Justin Foscue. Anyone from that group could step up and grab a more prominent role at second base, but none of that group has hit nearly as well as Smith in the majors.
Duran showed some promise in 2023 but has hit just .237/.278/.309 in 504 plate appearances dating back to 2024. Freeman had a terrific showing in Triple-A last year, hitting .336/.382/.549 with just an 8.7% strikeout rate in 97 games. That didn’t carry over to the majors, though. Freeman hit .228/.258/.342 with a 15.7% strikeout rate in 121 turns at the plate. Foscue posted league-average offense in Triple-A this past season but has a bleak .059/.094/.098 slash in an admittedly tiny sample of 53 plate appearances. He’s also long faced defensive questions and has been splitting time between second base and first base in recent seasons.
The most exciting option is likely still a ways down the road. Sebastian Walcott is widely regarded as one of the ten best prospects in the sport. He’s just 19 years old but already held his own against much more advanced Double-A pitching last year, hitting .255/.355/.386 with 13 homers, 32 steals, a 12.7% walk rate and an 18.9% strikeout rate. Walcott, who’ll turn 20 in March, is a shortstop but could move to second base with Corey Seager entrenched at shortstop.
Regardless of exactly what shape it takes, it seems the Rangers will avoid bringing in free agents or trade candidates of note to plug that gap at second base. Given the team’s stated goal of reducing payroll, signing someone like Bo Bichette never seemed viable, but this latest report also strongly suggests that second-tier infield targets like Jorge Polanco and trade targets like Brendan Donovan or Brandon Lowe aren’t going to be a priority.
Adding some additional depth on minor league deals and/or an opportunistic one-year deal for a bargain-bin pickup late in the offseason don’t seem out of the question. Wilson notes that GM Ross Fenstermaker said the club will be opportunistic on that front. For now, however, a splash of any real note doesn’t appear to be in the cards.
In a smaller but notable bit of Rangers news, president of baseball operations Chris Young made clear that he hopes to re-sign reliever Josh Sborz after non-tendering him last week, writes Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Young said his team is “extremely” interested in bringing Sborz back but prefers it to be on a minor league deal.
Sborz didn’t pitch this season after undergoing shoulder surgery in November 2024. The hope was that he’d make his way back to the mound at some point in 2025. He set out on a minor league rehab stint in mid-July but struggled both with results and velocity; Sborz’s fastball was down more than three miles per hour. Texas started and stopped his rehab stint multiple times before shutting him down entirely in early September.
The 31-year-old Sborz (32 in a couple weeks) had a bizarre campaign in 2023, pitching well for much of the season (3.83 ERA through mid-August) before being torched for 13 runs in 7 2/3 frames down the stretch, thereby ballooning his ERA to 5.50. Sborz then bounced all the way back — and then some — in the playoffs, serving as one of then-manager Bruce Bochy’s most trusted relievers. He pitched a dozen innings and allowed only one run (0.75 ERA) on four hits and four walks. He fanned 13.
If another club is willing to put Sborz on its 40-man roster — or offer him a larger salary on a non-guaranteed contract — the Rangers might be hard-pressed to retain the right-hander. Coming off a lost season, however, that’s far from a sure thing. If Sborz does ultimately re-sign on a minor league pact, his track record and familiarity with the organization could give him an inside track on winning a roster spot — provided his shoulder is back up to full strength.