{"id":51259,"date":"2025-04-27T04:12:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T04:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=51259"},"modified":"2025-04-27T04:12:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T04:12:21","slug":"texas-rangers-superstar-utility-player-running-out-of-positions-to-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=51259","title":{"rendered":"Texas Rangers Superstar Utility Player Running out of Positions to Play"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Apr<\/picture><\/figure>\n
Apr 22, 2025; West Sacramento, California, USA; Texas Rangers third baseman Josh Smith (8) rounds the bases after hitting a home run against the Athletics during the fifth inning at Sutter Health Park. \/ Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Last year Texas Rangers utility man Josh Smith won the American League Silver Slugger as the top hitting utility player in the league.<\/p>\n

During spring training, Smith stated that his goal this year was to win a Gold Glove as the AL utility player.<\/p>\n

The Rangers appear to be doing everything possible to ensure he’s in position to make that happen.<\/p>\n

On Saturday against the San Francisco Giants the Rangers decided to give right fielder Adolis Garcia the day off from the field. In his place, they started Smith, who was making his second career start in right field.<\/p>\n

As Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News pointed out, this is the seventh different position Smith has played this season. Well, eighth if you count designated hitter.<\/p>\n

Looking at Smith\u2019s baseball reference page, he\u2019s started eight games at third base \u2014 most in place of an injured Josh Jung \u2014 along with four starts at shortstop. He\u2019s likely to make more starts there while Corey Seager is on the 10-day injured list with a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

Smith has started two games at first base, one game at second base, two games in left field and one game in center field. That doesn\u2019t count additional games he played in the field as an in-game substitute at third base, shortstop and second base. He\u2019s done all of that in just 21 games.<\/p>\n

That means that Smith has just two positions left to play all nine positions in a season \u2014 pitcher and catcher. He has never played either positions in the Majors to this point.<\/p>\n

Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young and manager Bruce Bochy both said in spring training that the goal was to make sure Smith got at least four or five games in the field per week, even though he wouldn’t have a set position.<\/p>\n

So far, the Rangers have made sure Smith is in the lineup nearly every day.<\/p>\n

Texas is also moving Smith around in the order. At the beginning of the current road trip, the Rangers took advantage of an opportunity to shuffle their lineup and moved Smith into the leadoff position. He responded by going 3-for-4 with a home run in his first game hitting in the top spot.<\/p>\n

On Saturday he batted in the eighth spot. For much of the season he\u2019s batted in the third spot in the order.<\/p>\n

No matter where he plays, he produces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year Texas Rangers utility man Josh Smith won the American League Silver Slugger as the top hitting utility player in the league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nTexas Rangers Superstar Utility Player Running out of Positions to Play - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=51259\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Texas Rangers Superstar Utility Player Running out of Positions to Play - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last year Texas Rangers utility man Josh Smith won the American League Silver Slugger as the top hitting utility player in the league.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=51259\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-27T04:12:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Them-tieu-de-phu-46-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"XuanTan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"XuanTan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=51259\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=51259\",\"name\":\"Texas Rangers Superstar Utility Player Running out of Positions to Play - 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