Smith not taking anything for granted competing for Rangers' 2B spot

ARLINGTON -- Josh Smith knows what the elephant in the room is. He knows overcoming his consistent second-half struggles will be key to not only being an everyday player, but becoming the Rangers’ new everyday second baseman.

So while he may be the leading internal candidate to replace Marcus Semien at second base -- along with other guys like Ezequiel Duran, Cody Freeman, Sam Haggerty and Michael Helman -- it won’t just be handed to him.

“I don't think the job is mine to hold yet,” Smith said on Monday. “I know we got some guys competing for it. You never know, anything could happen and we have good players, as well. But I'm just gonna do what I can, control what I can and not really try to do anything differently.”

Smith has two full big league seasons under his belt, and both of them showed the same trend:

2024
• First half (90 games): .293/.392/.469
• Second half (59 games): .215/.265/.300

2025
• First half (84 games): .277/.353/.416
• Second half (60 games): .208/.306/.286

“It's a hard game every year,” Smith added. “It teaches you something. For me, the most frustrating thing is the elephant in the room and just trying to finish stronger. That'll be a focus of mine.”

Smith has become an everyday player as a utility man over the past two seasons, logging starts at every position except pitcher and catcher in 2025. By doing that, he joined Danny Santana (2019) as the only players in Washington/Texas franchise history to achieve the feat in a single season.

Smith has filled in admirably when shortstop Corey Seager, third baseman Josh Jung or first baseman Jake Burger have been hurt over the past two years. But he hasn’t been able to do it across a full season.

So how does he fix that?

“I don't know,” Smith said. “I wish there was a secret to hitting .300 in the second half. I think maybe just taking it one day at a time, and if I do have a bad day, just forgetting about it. I feel like that's probably the hardest thing for me. Sometimes if I'm struggling a little bit, I think about it probably too much.”

He might not exactly know how to fix it, but he knows it’s not a physical or fatigue issue. To put it simply, he needs to understand his swing better.

“It’s just like chasing different things and not really knowing what I’m doing with your swing and why it's working,” Smith explained. “What I've struggled with is sometimes my swing will be really good and I have no clue why, and then I lose it. And I'm like, ‘What the heck happened? How do I get it back?’ That's one thing I've been trying to focus on this offseason -- being mechanically sound and trying to get mentally stronger.”

Even with Smith’s second-half struggles over the past two seasons, he’s still the leading internal option at second base, despite only playing 10 career games at the position. Nobody wants to bluntly say that it’s his to lose, least of all Smith himself.

But it feels like that’s where we’re headed with less than a month left until Spring Training.

“He's probably the most established Major Leaguer [of the internal options],” president of baseball operations Chris Young said last month. “Does that mean he's getting the first shot? I mean, you can make what you want. The player who comes into camp and earns the job will be the second baseman. But Smitty, the good version of him, I think it lends itself towards believing it's his job to win. But he's got to go do it.”