All-Star voting ends soon, and the Texas Rangers have a player that you’ve probably never heard of that deserves to be there.

The serious baseball fan knows who Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Adolis Garcia, Jonah Heim and Josh Jung are. They were all on the team in 2023.

Even casual Rangers fans however may not know a lot about the teams current everyday third-baseman.

Josh Smith was acquired in the Joey Gallo trade along with Ezequiel Duran, Glen Otto and Trevor Hauver from the Yankees in July of 2021.

Smith made it to the Rangers along with Otto and Duran. His defense was stellar but his offense was lacking. When Corey Seager went down during the 2023 season Josh Smith was the player who replaced him.

Due to lack of offensive production, he was replaced as the everyday short-stop by Duran who had an offensive explosion while playing everyday.

Admittedly, his swing was not the best in 2023. When asked why he changed his batting stance, Smith told texasrangers.com “Well, I was hitting like a buck 50. That was kind of annoying, so I just had to make some changes.”

His defensive ability was never in question, it was his production at the plate. After his 2023 season with a slash line of .185/.304/.328/.633 with 6 homers and 15 RBI, he decided to make some changes.

In 2024 since changing his batting stance, Smith is slashing .303/.395/.474/.869 with 7 homers and 31 RBI.

Among American League 3rd baseman Smith is currently:

Batting Average – 1st

On Base Percentage – 1st

Slugging – 3rd

OPS – 2nd

Hits – 5th

Walks – 4th

Doubles – 1st

Runs – 4th

RBI – 5th

I’m not attempting to make a case that Josh Smith is the best third-baseman in the American League, but you can’t deny he should be higher than 7th in the voting.

Name recognition goes a long way in sports, and if fans don’t know who you are or don’t follow your team, sometimes the wrong people make it to the All-Star game.

Smith has played like an All-Star in place of the injured Jung. He has played stellar defense and obviously by the stats above his offense has been better than average.

Being that I cover the Rangers on a regular basis, I am trying to gin up support for a player that I have seen grow in 2024, a player that at least deserves to be in the conversation for the All-Star team.

Hopefully if the the fans don’t do the right thing and vote him in the players will. The manager used to have a say in some players but Bruce Bochy will not get to this year as that is no longer the case.

I would ask you to consider voting with the time remaining and trying to help get a worthy player into the game in front of his home crowd. Josh Smith deserves and fans deserve to know who he is.