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With the 2022 regular season over, it is that time where we go back and take a look at the players who appeared for the Texas Rangers this past season.
Today, we look at outfielder Zach Reks.
The 2022 Rangers neverending efforts to find players who could play left field at better than a replacement level resulted in a churn of forgettable players on the roster. One of those who briefly got a look was the interestingly named Zach Reks.
Purchased by the Rangers from the Los Angeles Dodgers in November, 2021, Reks primarily was discussed that offseason in the context of “who will get dropped from the 40 man roster to make room for someone signed/traded for?” It seemed to be just a matter of time before Reks landed on the waiver wire, with the question being whether it would be before spring training, or on the even of Opening Day, when players in camp on minor league deals had to be added to the active roster.
It is worth noting that Reks came to Texas with a career major league slash line of .000/.000/.000. He had 10 plate appearances for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2021 with seven strikeouts. I’m not sure this really fits in this part of the post, but I’m not sure where else it might fit.
Reks survived spring training with his 40 man roster spot intact, defying the odds, and ended up on the Round Rock-Arlington shuttle, as the Rangers called him up for three different brief stints in the majors in the first half of the season. The overall performance in the majors was unimpressive, though, as Reks slashed .265/.265/.294 with 10 Ks in 34 plate appearances over 16 games.
It is unfortunate, since Reks does have a good backstory, spending a year at the Air Force Academy before transferring to the University of Kentucky and spending two years as a regular student before walking onto the baseball team at UK. Drafted in the 10th round by the Dodgers in 2017 as a 23 year old, Reks made it to AAA in 2019. He has hit pretty well at AAA in his career, slashing .290/.388/.537 in 210 games for his career, including putting up a .331/.421/579 slash line for Round Rock in 2022.
Reks departed the organization at the end of June, joining the Lotte Giants of the KBO for the remainder of the 2022 season, slashing .330/.410/.495. Reks is returning to Lotte for the 2023 season.
Previously:
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