Travis Jankowski didn’t need a sales pitch to return to the Texas Rangers — he just needed a contract.
Once he got the offer, there wasn’t much debate about what to do.
“When they offered me a contract, it was like, ‘All right, let’s go,’” Jankowski said when he reported for spring training in Surprise, Ariz.
Jankowski won a World Series ring with the Rangers after nearly a decade of bouncing around baseball as the former first-round pick struggled to find consistent playing time.
With the Rangers, he played 100 or more games in a season for just the third time in his career. More importantly, he found a clubhouse culture to which he wanted to remain connected.
“The culture (Rangers general manager Chris Young) and (manager Bruce) Bochy have built, there are certain things you wish for in a job — you want to come to work happy every day and be around guys you enjoy being around,” Jankowski said. “It’s not like that everywhere.”
The Rangers nearly cut Jankowski before the regular season last March. But Leody Taveras’ delayed recovery from an oblique injury essentially saved Jankowski’s job, and he ended up having one of the best seasons of his career in a rotational role.
He batted a career-high .267 with one home run, 30 RBI, and a team-leading 19 stolen bases. He had just nine at-bats in the playoffs, but he had three hits, drove in two runs and drew a walk.
In fact, Jankowski felt so good about his hitting that he curtailed his normal break after the season, which is usually two to three weeks. He stayed away from baseball for a week before getting back in the cage.
“I had a good feel hitting towards the end of the year, and I didn’t want to lose that feel, so I wanted to keep riding it out,” he said.
Jankowski isn’t hung up on having a specific position. Last year, he played all three outfield positions, with 78 in left field, 14 in center field, and 16 in right field.
Jankowski wants to play every day, but with Evan Carter, Leody Taveras and Adolis García expected to start, and the potential for last year’s first-round pick, Wyatt Langford, to make the Opening Day roster, he could end up back in the same role he was a year ago.
That’s fine by him.
“If that's not in the cards, that's totally fine,” he said. “I’ll come off the bench and be the best fourth or fifth outfielder in the game and help this team win games.”
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