Texas Rangers 2017 preseason profile: Nomar Mazara
Texas Rangers outfielder Mazara looks to follow up an outstanding rookie season with an even better 2017.
The 2017 Texas Rangers are looking at an immense wealth of outfield talent this season, and 21-year-old Nomar Mazara is the guy with the biggest upside. After earning a fifth-place finish in AL Rookie of the Year voting last season, Mazara still has plenty of room to grow.
What Mazara did as a rookie
Mazara’s performance right out of the gate took Texas Rangers fans by storm. In his MLB debut, he started his career with a pair of singles in his first two at bats and then a home run in his third. With the feat, he joined the names of Ruben Sierra, Rusty Greer, Jurickson Profar and Joey Gallo as Rangers who homered in their first MLB game. For the rest of April, Mazara continued to hit well and finished with a .333 batting average and a .392 on base percentage for the month.
He finished the year with 20 home runs, a .266 average and an OBP of .320. Where his numbers create a little confusion are in his slugging percentage and extra base hits. While he finished just above the league batting average of .265, he came out considerably lower in slugging by 18 points at .419.
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The trouble is, aside from home runs, Mazara didn’t get many extra base hits. He ended up with just 13 doubles and three triples, meaning 101 of his 137 hits were singles.
Mazara also struck out 2.87 times per every walk. Those whiffs made up 19.7% of his at bats. While he certainly wasn’t among the league’s worst last season, there’s room to improve. He could stand to put the ball in play a little more frequently. His .299 average on balls in play shows that simply making contact would drastically raise his already solid batting average.
Defensively, Mazara didn’t fare badly at all. He finished second among AL right fielders in range factor per nine innings with 2.46 and third in range factor per game at 2.16. With a .992 fielding percentage in 2016, he also placed third among AL right fielders. In short, Mazara played really well as a rookie.
What Mazara will do this season
Despite his success in 2016, there is still plenty left for Mazara to prove in his sophomore season. With just modest improvement, he can obliterate the numbers he put up last year and solidify himself as one of baseball’s top young outfielders.
He’ll see a nice boost to his batting average this season to the range of about .290 and he’ll also continue to get on base more often at a clip of roughly .345. His power numbers will also increase and it will be seen in more than just home runs.
Mazara will finish the season with 30 home runs and will drive in 85 runs. He’ll also collect significantly more doubles, ending the year with 25. Because of this, he’ll end up with a slugging percentage somewhere around .560.
Defensively, he’ll use his modest range to make some great outfield plays. He won’t show the best range, but he also won’t need to with Carlos Gomez in center field next to him.
Next: Rangers preview: Mike Napoli
The 2017 season will be a nice improvement for Mazara. He’ll show some maturity and improvements across the board that make him a key member of the future for the Texas Rangers organization.