One Texas Rangers Player They Should Be Building Around in 2027

The Texas Rangers don’t have many options to build around in 2027. But this player might be the best image of what this team wants to be.

Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Texas Rangers need to change. President of baseball operations Chris Young has acknowledged that.

During his end-of-season press conference last week, he made the case for what he wants the franchise to be in the future.  

“We need to get younger,” he said. “We need to get more athletic. We need to get more dynamic, and those are going to be off-season goals of ours.”

That means the Rangers aren’t going to be built around Corey Seager, Jacob deGrom or Nathan Eovaldi, its aging core. It doesn’t mean they will build around Brandon Nimmo, either. So, then who?

There is one player that fits Young’s description. It might seem unorthodox, but building this team around Ezequiel Duran — specifically in his image — should be what the Rangers strive for in 2027.

Why Build Around Ezequiel Duran

Texas Rangers shortstop Ezequiel Duran. Credit: Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Duran came into his own this season. He emerged as the team’s super-utility player and fashioned a season that might allow him to win both the American League Silver Slugger and Gold Glove at utility player.

Duran slashed .260/.320/.419 with 17 home runs and 83 RBI. He set single-season bests in home runs, RBI and stolen bases (11). He played a career-best 153 game in part due to injuries to Josh Smith, Josh Jung and Corey Seager. He showed an aptitude for seven different positions, including two that he barely played before this season — center field and right field. He played many of those positions at a Gold Glove level.

He’s younger than most of the players on the team. He’s clearly athletic. He’s versatile. He’s proven he can hit for power and average. In 2023 he showed what he could do in a limited sample at a set position when Seager was hurt. He batted .300 for May. Now, he’s mastered the art of producing at any position on any given day.

Duran has also proven durable. If this question had been posed after the 2023 season Jung might have been the answer. And he had a career season in 2026 in many respects. But he missed more than a month due to injury and that’s been the issue his entire career — availability. Even in the World Series season he missed nearly two months with a fractured thumb.

For all those reasons, Duran is the answer — or, in his case, the solution — to what ails the Rangers in terms of roster construction. Texas doesn’t need eight utility players. But it needs players that embody Duran’s best qualities at set positions every day.

If Texas does that this offseason, the Rangers should get better.