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Eight most intriguing spring training battles

Spring training

Texas Rangers: Ryan Rua vs. Joey Gallo

Joey Gallo

Whether at first base or designated hitter, it’s fair to say that Mike Napoli will be an every day player. But who gets the other spot?

Gallo has fantastic power and is defensively versatile. But with a career MLB slash line of .173/.281/.368 and a whopping 76 strikeouts in only 133 at-bats, he’s got a lot of work to do. Rua’s career MLB slash line of .255/.308/.404 is certainly better, but it also leaves a lot to be desired.

For the Rangers, it’s important that one of these players steps up and grabs this position by the horns.

Gallo has the higher ceiling, no doubt. If Texas was a bad team, it’d almost be worth it to give him the spot and put Rua on the trade blocks. But Rua is a much safer pick. He isn’t a perfect player, but his flaws haven’t shown him to be a liability at the MLB level. That’s valuable for a team that had the American League’s best record in 2016.

There’s a lot to watch with these two during spring training.

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