CHICAGO — They’ll need to designated someone to hit. It’s just a matter of who, and more importantly, how.
The Rangers placed designated hitter Joc Pederson on the 10-day injured list Sunday with a right-hand fracture and expect him to miss a minimum of six weeks. Pederson, whose fifth metacarpal bone was broken by a Bryse Wilson cutter in Saturday’s loss, had started 36 of the Rangers’ first 53 games at designated hitter.
It was the most that any Ranger had played at designated hitter in a single season since Mitch Garver started 56 games at DH two years ago. The Rangers opted for a designated-hitter-by-committee system of sorts last season and may now return to that approach with Pederson potentially out until the All-Star break.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said Sunday morning that the club doesn’t “have any real plan right now” at DH for the foreseeable future but acknowledged it could be used as an opportunity to give players days off their feet. The Rangers played outfielder Sam Haggerty at DH in Sunday’s game because Bochy thought he could use a break.
The quartet of Adolis García, Wyatt Langford, Jonah Heim and Kyle Higashioka has each also seen time at DH and could likely find their way into this rotation if the Rangers do choose to play it by committee.
There is, of course, the Corey Seager route. Seager, an All-Star shortstop, could return to the Rangers next weekend after his second hamstring strain-related injured list trip of the season. He’s only started 25 games at DH in his three-plus seasons with the Rangers but is a logical option to see more time there to both continue his recovery from a hamstring strain and potentially prevent further soft tissue injuries.
“Could [he] give us a pretty good option there? Yeah,” Bochy said. “[We could] maybe bring him back a tad sooner and get him off his legs more.”
The Rangers have gotten a league-worst .478 OPS out of the DH position this season almost entirely due to Pederson’s abysmal start to the year.
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