Texas Rangers’ Opening Day third baseman in 2021 just a seat-warmer for Josh Jung

This story is the second in a series of position previews leading to Texas Rangers spring training. The first workout for pitchers and catchers is Feb. 17, and the first full-squad workout is Feb. 22.

Chris Woodward was convinced, based on offseason conversations, that Elvis Andrus was going to be the Texas Rangers’ third baseman on Opening Day.

He still needed to show in spring training that he could play capably there, but with no true third baseman on the roster, the grading curve was likely going to be enormous.

That all changed Saturday after the Rangers sent Andrus to the Oakland A’s, who are expected to make him their everyday shortstop. That opportunity with the Rangers went poof early in the offseason when they moved Gold Glove third baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa to shortstop.

Even if Andrus hadn’t been traded and had been at third April 1 at Kansas City, his hold on the position would have been tenuous at best.

Third base will belong to top prospect Josh Jung at some point this season.

Barring something extraordinary, it won’t be to start the season. Jung, the 2019 first-rounder from Texas Tech, has been invited to big-league spring training but has never played above Low A.

But he’s at the top of the next wave of prospects who are tasked with bringing the Rangers out of their rebuild and back into postseason contention.

“We would like to give Josh, and a lot of our young players, a chance to develop and play a traditional minor-league season,” president of baseball operations Jon Daniels said. “That’s our hope. We’ll evaluate if he and they are as far along, in a few cases, as we think they might be.

“But while he’s going to be competing in some regards for a spot in spring training, our preference at least right now — he hasn’t played above A ball — would be that he gets additional development time.”

The Rangers are likely to add a third baseman before spring training, Daniels said. That player will likely compete for at-bats with Rougned Odor and Charlie Culberson.

Another prospect who plays third base, Sherten Apostel, is also ticketed for the minor leagues to open the season. Also, his future position could be first base.

Jung will be fielding grounders and splitting at-bats right there with them. Depending on what happens with the minor-league seasons, he could open at Triple A Round Rock to avoid becoming stagnant during the anticipated spring training for minor-leaguers at Double A and lower.

Daniels mentioned that an alternate site could be a possibility, though nothing official has been announced by MLB and the MLB Players Association. The best course for Jung, it seems, is to be somewhere that isn’t Arizona for a second spring and isn’t the major leagues.

“There’s still a lot that we don’t know about the season,” Daniels said. “What we do know is that we’ve got big-league camp starting here in about 10 days or so and Josh will be there along with a number of our other young players that we’re excited about.

“So, we’re looking forward to being able to evaluate him in that setting, both evaluate him and let him continue to develop in that setting. From there, whether Josh stays in Arizona or goes to the alternate site, whether Triple A and Double A start relatively soon, I don’t have those answers.”

Also not known at this point is who will open the season at third base. Odor was told to prepare to play positions other than second base, which is looking more and more like it will be manned by Nick Solak.

Odor played third base for Venezuela in the 2017 World Baseball Classic but has never played there in the minors or majors. There’s a chance that changes, especially with Andrus gone.

“I have to see it,” Woodward said. “I haven’t seen him take ground balls at third base. It definitely opened the door for him, for sure. Based on what Elvis had been telling me and his openness to doing it, I felt like he was going to come in pretty prepared to take that job. We don’t really have anybody there penciled in, so I expect Roogie to come in and fight for it.”

The winner, though, is just a seat-warmer until Jung is deemed ready.