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2025 Season in Review: Justin Foscue
With the 2025 Texas Rangers season having come to an end, we shall be, over the course of the offseason, taking a look at every player who appeared in a major league game for the Texas Rangers in 2025.
Today we are looking at infielder Justin Foscue.
Not a great 2025 season for Justin Foscue.
In a year in which the Texas Rangers saw numerous position players go down — particularly in the final two months of the season — it seemed like there should have been opportunities for Justin Foscue to get a decent amount of major league playing time.
Instead, Foscue appeared in four major league games — two in June, two in July — going 1 for 9.
His one hit was a double, though. So that’s something.
And yet it was still an improvement over his time in the majors in 2024, when he had that ridiculous hitless streak and ended the year 2 for 42 with two walks. His 2025 OPS of 333 more than doubled his 2024 OPS of 162.
In case you are curious, Justin Foscue is currently sporting a career .059/.094/.098 major league slash line in 53 plate appearances.
What had to be particularly disappointing was that Foscue went backwards in AAA. Foscue has now spent three seasons with Round Rock, and after putting up an 862 OPS in 2023 and an 897 OPS in 2024, he dropped to 814 for the Express in 2025.
That’s a problem, particularly for a guy who is supposed to be a bat-first guy without a firm defensive position.
And so the clock is ticking for Justin Foscue. He is entering 2026 with one option year remaining. He needs to show that he can stay healthy — something he’s consistently failed to do as a pro — and that he can hit well enough to deserve a major league roster spot despite his defensive limitations.
It is worth noting that Foscue performed well against lefthanders in 2025, slashing .288/.367/.629 against them in 150 plate appearances. He slashing .265/.390/.500 against them in 2024, and .282/.415/.504 in 2023.
For a Texas Rangers team that needs a righthanded bench bat, someone who can platoon with Joc Pederson at DH, there’s an opportunity for Foscue this year to try to carve out a role as a righty bench bat. Of course, taking advantage of that opportunity requires him to stay healthy, and Foscue has already been sidelined this spring due to a hamstring strain.
The 2020 first round has been not terribly productive thusfar. Spencer Torklelson went first overall, and despite being a college bat who got an $8M plus bonus and was supposed to be close to major league ready, 2025 was his first decent season. The eight players selected immediately after him — Heston Kjerstad, Max Meyer, Asa Lacy, Austin Martin, Emerson Hancock, Nick Gonzales, Robert Hassell III, and Zac Veen — have all disappointed. Garrett Crochet and Pete Crow-Armstrong are easily the standouts of the 2020 first round, with Jordan Westburg, Reid Detmers, Patrick Bailey, Garrett Mitchell and Tyler Soderstrom also providing some value.
Interestingly, three of the top nine players taken in the first round that year are catchers — Bailey, Soderstrom, and Austin Wells.
There was a pandemic going on in the world that year, and so it shouldn’t exactly be surprising that that draft shook out kind of weird.
Previously:
‘A red card for jogging’ – Leeds boss Farke slams decision to send him off after final whistle against Man City
Leeds United boss Daniel Farke has slammed the decision from referee Peter Bankes to send him off after the final whistle of their defeat to Manchester City.
Farke was shown a straight red card after running over to Bankes to express his frustrations.
The Leeds boss says he was particularly unhappy with there not being enough added time at the end of the game, but denied he ever used strong language and claimed Bankes was ready to send him off before he had even said anything.
“Perhaps Peter (Bankes) wanted to be the first one to give me a red card in my career,” Farke said. “I think he could also have given me a yellow card because I also don’t think I’ve received a yellow card at Premier League level.
“I’m a very self-critical person. Whenever I do a mistake I hold my hands up and say listen, I have to apologise because in my job I also have to be a role model but really in this case, this scenario, I think it shouldn’t be a red card. It’s really my honest belief.
“There will always be disagreements about situations in the game. During the game there were several decisions we can speak about. A possible foul in the build up before their goal on Brenden Aaronson, we can speak about the situation when a foul was given against JJ (James Justin), although it was a straight leg against him and he’s a doubt for tomorrow because it was a foul on him.
“I think there was a situation between Cherki and Gruev which I judged differently. I think there was a handball incident in the second half where I think it should be at least checked to have a look at.
“I think six minutes added time for this game was not enough but the referee judged it in a different way and we also have to live with it.
“But what I think should not happen at this level is more or less what happened in added time. Six minutes added time shown by the fourth official and this means you play at least six minutes added time.
“During this added time there were three occasions that the referee had to encourage the Man City player to be quicker. Two times with a goal kick and one time also from a throw in.
“Then there comes an incident where he even gives a yellow card for time wasting.
“I went to Oliver Langford (fourth official), a top guy by the way and in this game was excellent and said ‘listen, don’t let him show a yellow card because this is our time, we want to equalise’. He says ‘no Daniel, don’t worry, we will add this to the time no problem’.
“He encouraged them three times already to play quicker. He (Bankes) walks over to give a yellow card for time-wasting, this alone lasts 20 to 30 seconds, how long do we want to play in the end? 12 minutes? He said ‘don’t worry, Peter will deal with it, it’s not your problem’.
“I can’t tell you if we play one or two minutes longer if we would really have equalised but you never know, there is at least a chance.
“If it happens in the 46th minute, perhaps he can forget about something, but not if 90 seconds before you give a yellow card for time-wasting, you speak to them several times, the fourth official tells me don’t worry we will add this then after six minutes and nine seconds, we have the ball, want to bring a long ball in, he blows the whistle and ends the game.
“At this level, for me, this is a clear mistake and shouldn’t happen.”
Farke continued by claiming he would “never jog again” on the pitch.
“I was obviously not happy, not with the decisions but especially with the six minutes added time and I wanted to run over because I wanted to be the first and not anyone else coming to speak about the handball or the Gruev and Cherki situation,” he explained.
“I just wanted a short, quiet moment with the referee. I was running over because I wanted to ask him why he didn’t add a few seconds, at least 30 seconds or one minute added time if he gives a yellow card for time-wasting.
“I jogged over and there was not one bad word, I didn’t abuse him at all, I didn’t swear at him at all, I didn’t use one word of bad language. There was no flying arms or wild gestures. I was just jogging over to ask him for what do you give the yellow card over there if you don’t add any seconds.
“I don’t even finish for what because as soon as I arrived, he had the red card in his hands and sorry, didn’t speak to me, didn’t even watch me and just shows me a red card.
“I can’t say that I was unbelievably happy that he didn’t add any seconds but I just wanted to ask the question.
“After he showed the red card, also in this manner to more like embarrass me by showing the red card, to show the whole world, listen this guy is not worth to talk to. This guy is not even worth to look at him, then I was angrier but even then I didn’t use one bad word, I didn’t accuse him, not at all.
“You can also see it on the footage with the assistant. If I would have done something disrespectful I think he would have perhaps defended his mate, the referee, and they were also shocked a red card was shown and tried to speak to me more or less.
“This is not how we should work with each other. Listen, I have so much respect for all the referees, otherwise I would never last in this business for nearly 20 years without being shown a red card.
“I learned my lesson. I will never, ever jog again on the pitch although I don’t think you could be a shown a red card for jogging. I don’t think it’s something where you should be shown a red card.
“I have to admit, I’m not like a butterfly. I don’t look unbelievably cute and sweet when I jog. I have to admit this. The lesson I learned is I will never, ever jog on the pitch again but I don’t think a red card should be shown.
“With Peter, I respect him so much as a top, experienced referee. He was in charge of so many top games at this level. I don’t think he did something on purpose, I think he just misjudged or misinterpreted something.
“But in the end, I don’t take me too serious. I’m not more important than the players or the game. But I think it should be the same the other way round.
“If we meet each other in a few weeks and there’s something where we disagree and have a different opinion, it should be possible to ask at least a question or to speak about this. And even though we disagreed, to have a handshake.
“I will never, ever jog again. I will try to be as slow as I was as a player from now on on the pitch.”
Asled if he expects to be in the dugout against Sunderland, Farke replied: “If you ask me how I judge this situation, I don’t think this red card can stand.”