There have not been many pleasant surprises regarding the Texas Rangers' offense in 2025, but Dustin Harris has raised some eyebrows since coming up to the big league squad.
Harris, who made his MLB debut last season playing just two games, has gotten his first real crack at the big leagues. Filling in at left for Wyatt Langford, Harris has made a case for consistent playing time moving forward, even with Langford set to return at any moment.
Harris has honestly been one of the Rangers' best bats since entering the lineup in the Seattle series, hitting .353 with a 1.036 OPS in 18 plate appearances. In over 500 games in the minor leagues, Harris put up fine numbers with a .816 OPS while hitting around .280. He has only hit 62 home runs in his six seasons, but has a strikeout percentage of less than 20%.
With his very nice start to his MLB career, Harris has vaulted himself into a position to get continued playing time when Langford returns any day now. I believe he has played himself above Ezequiel Durnan in the eyes of Bruce Bochy, and the Rangers need an answer at DH until Joc Pederson comes out of his historically bad start to the season.
In his admittedly very brief stint in the MLB, Harris has an average exit velocity of 92.1 MPH and an xBA of .318. For context, Corey Seager has an average exit velocity of 91.5 (74th percentile) and a xBA of .306 (91st percentile). Plus, Harris’ defense has been stree-free.
Harris, drafted in the 11th round in 2019, is now 25 years old with over 2,200 minor league at-bats, showing exactly what he is as a player. Which is a consistent, solid bat at the middle-to-bottom of the order that lengthens a lineup. Exactly what the doctor is ordering for the current state of the Rangers' lineup.
With the large sample size we have from him at the AA and AAA level, I believe the numbers reflect exactly what we will get from Dustin at the MLB level. That, plus the aforementioned eye-popping struggles for Pederson, present a great opportunity to continue to get him big league at-bats at the DH spot in the coming weeks.
If he shows he is not ready, send him down. If he shows he is what I think he is, that is your best option at DH until Joc gets right. Even then, a solid bat off the bench and a better option for certain fill-in spots than Zeke Duran.
The defense has also been just fine in the outfield. He is even set to move to centerfield in Game 3 of the Dodgers series. Harris is not only the better option for the role, but he has taken advantage of his opportunity and played his way into staying with his big league club.
Dustin Harris has earned the right to not be optioned back to AAA Round Rock and should not be. Duran will most likely be the fall guy in that regard, as he was sent down right before the Langford injury.