Rob Refsynder is a name that some Texas Rangers fans may be familiar with. He played 15 games for them during the COVID shortened 2020 season. He didn’t make much of an impact only hitting .200/.265/.498 with no home runs and one RBI in 34 plate appearances.

So it wouldn’t be too surprising if fans didn’t remember him. He didn’t do much to make himself stand out in the time before that either.

He has made a name for himself the last couple years in Boston as a right handed bat that can crush lefties. He could be a guy that the Rangers could bring in to platoon and play some solid defense. Let’s look at what he brings to the team and how he performed last year.

Performance Last Year

Refsynder is coming off a season where he posted a career-high 1.2 WAR. His slash line was .269/.354/.484 with nine home runs and 30 RBIs. He walked 24 times compared to 54 strikeouts.

He is a platoon player indicated by his splits. He excels against lefties with a slash line of .302/.399/.560 with seven home runs and 25 RBIs. A majority of his walks came against lefties with 19 walks against 32 strikeouts.

His numbers significantly decrease against righties with a slash line of .212/.268/.348 with just two home runs and five RBIs. He walked just five times vs 22 strikeouts.

He would be a great player to pair with Evan Carter in the outfield as Carter is great against righties with a slash line of .269/.349/.433, but has struggled to hit lefties in his career. He managed just a .087/.250/.087 slash line against them last season.

However, this could hurt Carter’s development with him not getting the chance to improve against lefties. He was a top prospect for the Rangers in 2023 helping them win the World Series and still has a lot of potential. So I can understand why some fans may not want to handcuff Carter by pairing the two of them together.

Another player that Refsynder would be paired with is Josh Smith who is looking to be the starting second baseman following Semien’s departure. Smith’s are similar to Carter’s with him having more success against righties than lefties.

He slashed .206/.277/.224 against lefties while he hit .263/.350/.405 against righties. However, it has been a while since Refsynder played second base and he has primarily been an outfielder or designated hitter in the past few years.

Advanced Numbers

Refsynder’s baseball savant shows that he is doing a lot right. A good amount of his metrics stand out as above average compared to the rest of the league.

Based on these advanced stats you can see that he is one of the best in the league at drawing walks and not chasing. This forces pitchers to throw him strikes and combine that with his fast bat speed and that equals him hitting the ball hard.

His average exit velocity, barrel rate percentage, and hard hit rate all grade out well and it is definitely something that the Rangers could use to help the team.

Looking at his spray chart on the right, you can tell that he is a pull hitter with most of his hits going to left field. He does have a few that go to center and right, but it is easy to tell what his MO is based on that.

Some things that Refsynder doesn’t do too well are his strikeout rate and his expected batting average. His expected batting average is 23 points below his actual batting average this points to him getting lucky and there were some hits he had that should have been outs.

Looking at his strikeout percentage at 25.8 percent, this might take some people by surprise since he doesn’t whiff too much and his walk and chase rates are elite.

Looking deeper into his zone swing stats reveal some of the issues. He has a zone contact rate of 80 percent which is below the league average of about 84-84 percent, his zone swing rate mirrors this with it being 61.8 percent which is below average compared to the rest of the league where it is in the high 60’s to low to mid 70’s.

These stats show that at times Refsynder can be a little too passive at the plate and he does whiff a bit more at pitches in the zone compared to the rest of the league. He does make good contact when he connects with the ball though.

Verdict

Refsynder could be an asset to a Rangers team that hit .234 as a team in 2025 and hit .225 against lefties during that time.

Refsynder is not a free agent that will break the market as Spotrac only has him projected to get $4.2 million on the open market. The Rangers have been trying to cut payroll and this seems like a move that will fill a need and not cost too much.