Texas Rangers Delino DeShields a Major Component to Playoff Berth
By Jason Burke
Every now and again a Rule 5 draft pick pans out, albeit to varying degrees. Not every selection can end up like Josh Hamilton or Johan Santana. Oakland acquired Mark Canha via the draft last December and he finished 2015 with 15 homers and 69 RBI over 123 games, for a pace of 20 and 91 over a full season. Defensively, he came in at a -1.0 dWAR, or the same number value that the Texas Rangers received from fellow Rule 5 pick Delino DeShields, whose offensive numbers weren’t as booming as Canha’s (2 homers, 37 RBI and 83 runs in 121 games) but his contributions certainly had more of an impact on his team’s performance as Texas finds themselves set to take on the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS.
While DeShields undoubtedly received a boost from veterans like Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre in the lineup, his rise and contributions at the Major League level were more unexpected. DeShields is obviously talented, as we have seen, but having played in Double-A ball in 2014 while batting .236 with a .346 on-base percentage, the Houston Astros left him unprotected for the draft, concluding that DeShields was not ready for the jump to the big leagues just yet, and would likely be returned to them.
With Texas struggling at the beginning of the 2015 campaign, there seemed no reason to replace DeShields on the roster. Instead, keep him around and have him develop a bit in the Majors while awaiting the return of Yu Darvish in 2016, and with it the hopes of competing once more. Then, Fielder got hot in May, batting .377 for the month and helped the team to some much-needed victories, becoming the team’s early season MVP. On May 15, the Astros were atop the American League while the Rangers toiled third from the bottom, eight games behind their in-state rivals.
As the heat of July hit the stands in Arlington, Fielder began to slide, batting just .258 in the month (he finished at .305 for the season), and the Rangers went 2-8 in July heading into the All-Star break. Post break, with their season on the line, Texas went 8-6 to finish out the month, taking series from the Rockies and Angels while splitting a four-game set with the Yankees. July was also the month that DeShields broke out, hitting .292 and becoming a real spark plug for the Texas offense.
Coming into 2015, center fielder Leonys Martin was a breakout candidate for the Rangers, but he finished the season batting just .219 after missing large chunks of time with a wrist injury. DeShields, a second baseman by trade with some experience playing center in the minors, took over for Martin over the course of the season, also supplanting Martin at the leadoff position. Both moves have worked out well for Texas.
On a team busting with big contracts, DeShields’ contributions aren’t necessarily quantifiable statistically, but the addition of the 23-year-old to the roster and his implementation into the lineup have made a tremendous difference for the Rangers this season. Quite possibly the difference between heading to Toronto for a game on Thursday and walking the playoffs from home.