2019 Texas Rangers grades: Part XIII

With the 2019 Texas Rangers season now over, I’m going to do a series of posts handing out grades to every player who appeared for the Rangers this year. I’m starting with pitchers, will go in alphabetical order, and then will do position players in alphabetical order.

Grades will be based on a combination of performance, expectations, and my own whims at the moment I happen to be typing this up. They aren’t to be taken too seriously.

Here is Part I, and Part II, and Part III. Here is Part IV and Part V and Part VI. Here is Part VII, and Part VIII, and Part IX, and Part X...

We finally wrapped up pitchers with Part XI...

And then yesterday we did Part XII, which was the first group of position players...

And today we continue on with Part XIII...

SHIN-SOO CHOO — B

Here are the slash lines for Shin-Soo Choo in his four healthy seasons as a Ranger:

2015: .276/.375/.463

2017: .261/.357/.423

2018: .264/.377/.434

2019: .265/.371/.455

Remarkably consistent. Choo, who turns 38 in July, has aged like the Rangers hoped he would age when they signed him. He just didn’t have the big positive impact early in the contract — in 2014 and 2016 — like they hoped.

Choo has been available via trade for the last several years, and I am sure will be available this offseason. He’s also owed $21 million, the Rangers likely don’t want to pay a bunch of money for someone to just take him off their hands and not send anything back in return, and he has a no-trade clause. Oh, and he’s a poor defensive outfielder, meaning that National League teams are likely not going to have much interest in him.

So Choo will probably finish out his deal in Texas in 2020 as the team’s DH. And he will probably hit in the .260s, put up an OBP in the .270s, hit around 20 home runs and put up a low- to mid-.400s slugging percentage. He will play the outfield a little, not play it well, and get praise for his work ethic and his dedication.

I have mentioned this before, but I think that Shin-Soo Choo was signed by the Rangers at least in part because of a belief that he could follow the Adrian Beltre career path — be a guy who sustains success late into his career due to his makeup and work ethic while being a positive clubhouse presence. Choo hasn’t worked out the way that Beltre did, of course — there’s only one Adrian Beltre. But Choo has aged gracefully and is still a nice major league player.

DELINO DESHIELDS — B-

Delino DeShields turned 27 in August. He seems like he’s been around forever, I think in part because of the varying twists and turns his career has had. And he once again spent time in both the minors and the majors in 2019, though the bulk of the season he was in the big leagues, where he slashed .249/.325/.347, with a 1.3 bWAR and a 0.8 fWAR in 408 plate appearances.

Delino is a useful fourth outfielder whose defense (which has improved dramatically from when he first got to Texas) and speed makes him an asset off the bench, but whose bat isn’t good enough for you to want to play him every day. He could very well end up starting in center field in 2020 for the Rangers, just because the team has a number of holes to fill and might decide that center is something they can address internally.

One gets the sense that fans are kind of tired of Delino and ready to move on from him. Two really bad offensive seasons in close proximity (2016 and 2018) will do that. That said, Delino is the type of player who can be a contributor on a winning team. In 2019, he performed at a level consistent with a solid bench player or a second division regular. The problem is, I think, that his 2015 offensive performance — which he has never matched — raised expectations as to what he could be going forward.

TIM FEDEROWICZ — B

Do you remember how Tim Federowicz ended up with the Rangers? Isiah Kiner-Falefa jammed his finger diving back to first base in a June 6 win against Baltimore. Texas had just started a stretch of 21 games in 20 days, which included a doubleheader on June 8. The only other catchers on the 40 man roster were Jeff Mathis, who was already in the majors but, at 36, not considered physically up to the task of catching more than half the time, and Jose Trevino, who was on the minor league injured list.

Texas was still above .500 and kind of, sort of, in the playoff hunt. They had some veteran depth options at AA and AAA, but no one all that appealing. But they had to get someone to Arlington immediately who could share time with Jeff Mathis going forward.

Enter Tim Federowicz. The 31 year old was toiling at AAA for the Cleveland Indians, and was apparently immediately available, and able to get to Arlington for the June 7th game against Oakland. Texas acquired him for cash considerations, he joined the 25 man roster, caught game one of the doubleheader on June 8 and then the game against Oakland the next day, and stuck around sharing time with Mathis until the end of July, when he was sent down so Jose Trevino could come up.

Federowicz then was added back to the roster in late September, when Jeff Mathis was ailing and the Rangers needed another body to potentially play behind the plate, and he got one more start, going 0 for 4 in a 10-3 loss against Boston.

Yes, he put up a .160/.213/.347 slash line for the Rangers, but he was a body when they needed a body, and he hit a 3 run homer run off of Ryan Dull in his first game as a Ranger to help Texas triumph by a 10-5 score. So he gets a B.