Desmond’s play encompasses much of what the Rangers thus far successful season has been all about. While they were projected to be good, they’ve gone about it in a quiet and unexpected manner.
The likes of Sin Soo-Choo, Prince Fielder, Mitch Moreland, and Rougned Odor have all experienced relatively tumultuous and inconsistent seasons, both on and off the field. Even Adrian Beltre has seemingly begun to lose his proprietary claim to the fountain of youth, and Cole Hamels’ deeper stats suggest his solid surface numbers are primarily an optical illusion. In their place, the Rangers have relied more heavily upon a combination of youthful and resurgent characters. Colby Lewis, Jurickson Profar, and Nomar Mazara, amongst others, represent this trend, but none as well as Desmond.
While it’s tempting to rationalize Desmond’s bounce back campaign as a multifaceted change of scenery gone right, with the aid of some regression to a career mean, it is worthwhile to take a deeper examination of his precipitous rebirth. When perusing through Desmond’s numbers one is struck by the roller coaster, although symmetrical, nature of his career arc.
The Texas Rangers’ Ian Desmond is the fourth incarnation of the player. Desmond 1.0 existed from 2010-11 (we are excluding his 2009 September call-up). Desmond 2.0 reigned from 2012-2014. Then, Desmond 3.0 fell hard and fast in 2015, with the aforementioned newest and current model now existing in Texas.
Next: A look at the numbers