Desmond’s drive:
Shortstop-turned-do-it-all-All-Star-outfielder has Rangers riding high in American League West
Shortstop-turned-center fielder’s turnaround season proves crucial to Texas’ success.
New league. New team. Two new positions. No problem.
Told he’s making those major, simultaneous transitions look pretty easy, Ian Desmond just laughs.
“I think it’s just probably because of the environment, mostly,” the Texas Rangers center fielder says. “I’m surrounded by really good players on this team. My BP group is Prince Fielder, Adrian Beltre, Shin-Soo Choo and Mitch Moreland. Those guys are all well-established hitters. They’ve done a lot in the game. Every day I’m trying to pick their brains, watch their swings and watch the way they go about their work. I’m benefiting from that tremendously.”
The Rangers are certainly benefiting from Desmond, too. Entering the week, he was among the league leaders in batting average, on-base-percentage, stolen bases, multihit games, runs and total bases and led the American League with a .400 average against left-handers. At press time, he led the majors with five go-ahead home runs in the seventh inning or later.
He was the first major leaguer to reach 15 home runs and 15 stolen bases this season and was the third batter in Rangers history to do so before the All-Star break, along with Ivan Rodriguez in 1999 and Ian Kinsler in 2009. And he was the Rangers’ player of the month for May and June.
Primarily the No. 2 hitter (he’s also hit fourth, fifth and sixth), Desmond was batting about 80 points higher than his disappointing 2015 season and nearly 50 better than his career mark. He has averaged 156 games played over the last three seasons and had appeared in 92 of the Rangers’ 93 games this season through Sunday.
Desmond was named to his second All-Star team and played in the Midsummer Classic last week. Not entirely unexpected for some observers.
“For us, for me, just what he’s put into this season, what he’s meant to this club, to represent the Texas Rangers and himself as an All-Star for Major League Baseball, an incredible feat for him, a true testament to the de-
termination and hard work that he’s put in,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister says. “I think there’s a strong argument he’d be in the discussion of MVP of the league just based on what he’s done, in my opinion. A long way to go ... but those are real numbers.”
It was never a given that Desmond would perform the way he has this season or that he would be doing so for the Rangers. After turning down a $15.8 million qualifying offer last season from the Washington Nationals, who drafted him in the fourth round in 2004 when they were the Montreal Expos, Desmond languished at home as a free agent while everyone else reported to spring training.
Teams were hesitant to commit to him and lose a draft pick. On the heels of rejecting a deal worth $107 million from the Nationals in 2014, according to news media reports, and taking a two-year $17.5 million deal instead, some observers questioned Desmond’s decision-making.
Desmond never did. Even when it wasn’t until Feb. 29 that he signed with the Rangers, for the relative bargain at one year and $8 million. Even when it was with the caveat that the Rangers were not bringing him in as a shortstop, where he had played the majority of his career and was an All-Star in 2012, or as a second baseman where he had played a handful of games in 2009, the season he made his major league debut.
After realizing they would be without Josh Hamilton (knee injury), the Rangers wanted Desmond to play the outfield. Desmond began the season in left field — a position he had never played — then moved to center after incumbent Delino DeShields struggled.
‘A TRUE PRO’
Desmond’s professional outfield experience, which included the Nationals and in minor and winter leagues, totaled 15 innings.
He was open to playing a new position, especially on a championship-caliber team. He just didn’t want to be a utility player. Still, the thought of a transition brought with it a fair amount of trepidation.
“I think obviously there was some fear there at the beginning, because the last time I had played in the outfield was in winter ball in 2009 and I dropped a fly ball,” he says. “I played in the big leagues in 2009 prior to that in right field and a ball went over my head. So I knew I could do it. … But the two most recent instances
were not good. So I knew it was going to take work; it wasn’t going to be easy. And those situations were good, because it pushed me to realize it’s not going to be easy. You got to work your butt off if you want to be good at it.”
He’s done just that, Rangers coaches say.
“I think it’s, No. 1, the person he is,” outfield coach Jayce Tingler says. “I think he’s incredibly athletic, and I think he has a huge desire from Day 1 to be good out there. So you put his athletic
ability and his knowledge and experience of playing in the big leagues as long as he has, and he’s transitioned very well so far. I think overall just the person he is.
“He was eager to go (in spring training). With some players, you got to get them out there to do extra work. He was coming to me two, three times a day wanting to do it. That speaks volumes for who he is. He was pushing me: ‘Hey, let’s do more, let’s do more.’ So you could just tell he really wanted to be good at it.”
Desmond, who is listed at 6-3 and 215 pounds, made 27 starts in left field when the Rangers asked him to take on yet another new position: center field. The kid who grew up idolizing Andruw Jones did it almost seamlessly.
But it’s what he did before that transition that Banister recalls as exemplifying the player and the person the Rangers got.
“I go back to a story that, Delino Deshields was still here and Desmond was playing left filed,” Banister says. “Delino was scuffling a little bit in center field, and Desmond was the guy that was trying to help him, trying to work with him, gave him support — not the guy that’s over there kind of fish-eyeing him going, ‘Hey, look, I’m getting ready to be a center fielder.’
“No, this is a true pro, a leader saying, ‘Hey, we need you. We need for you to be better. This is what we need, and I’m going to help you.’
“He does that daily. He’s one of the first guys to the clubhouse. He suits up; he’s no nonsense. But yet can still have fun. He brings an edge, intensity to our guys. Look, we have some guys that already have that. I think he just solidifies that. But, yeah, it’s been tremendous to have him.”
Desmond has been highly regarded throughout his career for his production on the field and his professionalism off it. Pitcher Cole Hamels, the Rangers’ other All-Star this season, knows Desmond as well as any of his new teammates from their time together in the National League East. Desmond has faced Hamels more than he’s faced any other pitcher. The left-hander is not surprised by Desmond’s performance this season.
“No, not at all,” Hamels says. “I think you can ask anybody who’s ever played with him, he’s that typical guy that you call a ‘gamer’ and he shows it.
“He loves what he does. He wants to be here, and I think we’re more than happy that he wants to be a part of this team. He’s here helping us out because he fits right in and there’s a common goal that we all want to go win, and that’s the World Series. And you can feel it and see it every day.”
How long Desmond, who will be 31 in September, will be in Texas remains to be seen. He could be a free agent again this offseason. He hasn’t had any talks about a contract extension with the Rangers yet.
And that’s OK with him for now.
“I haven’t gotten that far yet,” he says. “Right now, I’m just really enjoying my time here. I’m having a really great time with this team, and I don’t want to cut that short based on future stuff. I think there’s enough to worry about.”