A couple of months into the offseason, it’s clear Chris Young is going to primarily rely on internal improvements for the lineup. The likes of Jake Burger, Josh Jung, and Joc Pederson immediately come to mind. Even Josh Smith will step into a bigger role as the favorite to take over the full-time job at second base.
To this point, outfielder Brandon Nimmo and catcher Danny Jansen are the only external additions to the lineup. Nimmo should have an everyday spot, while Jansen will split time with Kyle Higashioka. The latter is certainly not the flashiest name to come off the board in free agency but might end up being one of the more important ones for the Rangers.
Jansen will come to Arlington without the most eye-popping numbers on a solid Tampa Bay Rays team before getting traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for their playoff run. Between the two stops, Jansen hit .215 with an OPS of .721. Add in 14 home runs, 36 RBIs, and 11 doubles. The easiest way to summarize all of this is Jansen’s OPS+ on the season, 101.
One tick above league average? What does that do for the lineup? Well, consider whose spot Jansen will be replacing.
Jonah Heim was, unfortunately, one of the worst hitters in all of baseball last season. Heim got around 100 more at-bats and finished with three fewer home runs and only seven more RBIs compared to Jansen. Better indicating numbers, considering the AB discrepancy, show an OPS of .602. An even better indicator, Heim finished with an OPS+ of 77. Significantly worse than what Jansen put out there with a whole lot more opportunity.
Neither one of their Baseball Savant pages lights the world on fire – Jansen did not even qualify in a bunch of stats. One area he would have been among the best is chase percentage (19.9%) and walk percentage (12.5%). Heim was nearly bottom third percentile in both during the 2025 season.
The point of this article is not to sell the idea of Jansen being some kind of miraculous hero for the Rangers. If I had to guess, plenty of people are going to gripe about him being in the lineup at some point during the season. Typical Twitter fingers, not remembering what kind of production came from one of the catching spots a year ago.
One tick above league average would make the Rangers offense a whole lot better. Especially if Higashioka can remain healthy and produce at a clip we saw from last year.
Around league average also might be the best way to describe his performances at the plate, sporting an OPS+ of 102 in a career-high 94 games played. Maybe there will be some push to find a little more power at times after going from 17 home runs in San Diego to 11 in ’25.
“(Danny) is the perfect fit,” Young said. “A leader who brings a winning personality. He’ll complement Kyle Higashioka and the two of them behind the plate will make a great tandem.”
On paper, Young is correct. The tandem will not and should not make too many headlines leading into Opening Day. Catchers have lost a lot of luster throughout most of baseball, rarely producing much with a bat in their hands.
But the goal is to elevate the offense from the horrific output we saw two years removed from a World Series title won, mostly by the lineup. There will be other guys – Corey Seager, Wyatt Langford, Jung, Pederson – who determine how high the ceiling is. Maybe even throw Nimmo in there, considering he is replacing Marcus Semien.
A catching duo like Higashioka and Jansen can set a nice floor. And if those guys are producing league-average OPS+ with 25-30 extra-base hits each in there, you can consider it a success.
Sign up for more like this.