Ian Desmond always had a great deal of talent. Now, in his new home with the Texas Rangers, he seems to have finally found success.
Paramount to any player’s success is the environment in which they reside. Anyone who follows baseball, or more simply just lives their life, knows that the right situation, the proper fit, can make all the difference in the world. Sometimes, it goes both ways, as a player’s positive or negative impact on a team is mirrored by their impact on him. Over the past two seasons perhaps no player has been more emblematic of their club’s overall narrative and trajectory than Ian Desmond.
Last season, he was the most appropriate anecdote for the larger calamity that was the Nationals failed 2015 campaign. They were considered one of the deepest and most talented rosters, on paper, in baseball. Having come off three straight winning seasons that included two NL East crowns, they were a trendy World Series pick until a barrage of unfortunate injuries, puzzling regression in productivity, and disengaged and ineffective leadership culminated in a final result on the field that was matched in its degree of disappointment only by that which their team chemistry had devolved into.
Desmond, more than any other player on that team, left the baseball world scratching its collective head. Seemingly healthy, in shape, and presumably motivated heading into free agency, the former All-Star, in his age 29 season, took a sudden, shocking deviation from his usual level of performance. By season’s end both were looking forward to the opportunity of a fresh start. The Nationals were content to shift Danny Espinosa from second to short, and then fill that hole with Daniel Murphy. While that move and others, along with some much improved health, have served the NL East leading Nationals well, Desmond has found new life in his new home down in Texas.
Next: A match born of necessity