Texas Rangers In Talks With Free Agent Left Fielder

The Texas Rangers concentrated mainly on adding pitching this offseason, but there's still that left field issue to settle. It's a position they're looking to firm up, and there are very few options left on the free agent market. But it appears that they may be zeroing in on one of them.

Per industry sources: Robbie Grossman has had talks about a deal w the Rangers.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) February 17, 2023

According to ESPN's baseball insider Buster Olney, former Detroit Tiger Robbie Grossman has been in talks with the Rangers. 

It's basically just Grossman and Jurickson Profar left as viable options. And of course the Rangers have done their Profar thing, as he was a top prospect in their organization, but never really panned out to meet expectations in his five years there.

Grossman is coming off a rough 2022, in which he hit just .209 with a .622 OPS, and finished 20% worse than the average major league hitter (OPS+ of 80). He had a breakout year in 2021, when at the age of 31 he became a 20-20 man. He blasted a career-high 23 home runs while swiping a personal-best 20 bases. In fact, he'd only ever touched double-digit homers once before (with 11 in 2016), and had never topped 9 steals before. 

Over the course of his 10-year career, however, he does register as a major league average hitter (OPS+ of 101), and could add some depth to the Rangers' left field options, which currently consist of Josh Smith, Bubba Thompson and Mark Mathias. 

 Photo: Jim Cowsert-USA TODAY Sports