Texas Rangers: Willie Calhoun at most critical point in his career

Here’s why Willie Calhoun is entering the most critical point in his Texas Rangers career and how he handles himself will dictate his future.

The Texas Rangers and their fans have been arguing the future of Willie Calhoun ever since he was acquired in the trade that sent Yu Darvish to L.A. While it’s nothing new to debate the potential of a prospect, Calhoun is fairly unique in a couple ways.

The most notable topic has revolved around Calhoun’s weight. Last season Calhoun not only took an undisciplined approach on the field, but also at the buffet line. He displayed the effort and body language of someone with nothing to prove, when in fact, he had everything to prove.

Given his experience and skill set, the 24-year-old Calhoun was at point in his career where he should be making an impact at the major league level. But his attitude, appearance, and execution, all said otherwise.

After taking a personal inventory, Calhoun made changes over the winter. Showing up to spring training down 24 pounds and a shade under 200, Calhoun was on a mission to start his big league career. And for the most part he did just that. His base-running was notably better, his work in the field improved, and his work at the plate even improved in some areas.

But Calhoun was stuck in a numbers game and it wasn’t long before the writing was on the wall and his demotion to Triple-A was imminent.

This came to fruition last Friday when Calhoun was informed he was being option to Nashville. His reaction? He took his ball and went home. This action illustrates the other debatable aspect to Willie Calhoun’s potential as a ball player – his maturity and attitude.

Don’t get me wrong, the feelings behind his actions are perfectly understandable. The kid finally bought in. He did everything that was being asked of him and worked all offseason and through Spring Training to prove how seriously he was taking everything. All it got him was right back where he started.

More from Sports Dallas Fort-Worth

It didn’t matter that Chris Woodward gave him the baseball version of “it’s not you, it’s me”. Calhoun knows he earned his way. It was external factors that ultimately led to being optioned.

The good news is, after calming down and consulting some teammates, Calhoun swallowed his pride and returned to the team 48-hours later.

The maturity and attitude issues that seemed to bookend his heavyset 2018 season and remain clearly a work in progress. We can’t always control what we feel but we can control how we respond and how we act. Willie Calhoun seems to get that now.

But he’s far from a finished product. This year is going to be his most challenging season yet. Calhoun is going to see a relatively noncompetitive team in Arlington holding him back. He knows the hard work he’s put in and he knows the strides he’s made. He knows he’s ready. And it’s going to be frustrating to see a bad major league team not let him play with them.

dark. Next. The best thing the Rangers can do for their pitching prospects

All indications are Willie Calhoun is going to play in Arlington this season. Injuries and trades almost assure it. But we don’t know when it will happen exactly and we don’t know how long Willie can hold it all together and patiently wait. This is a critical time in his career and it’s up to him and the Texas Rangers to make sure it works out.

Published on 03/27/2019 at 12:00 PM
Last updated at 03/27/2019 at 08:34 AM

Home/Texas Rangers