The bats came out yesterday in Arizona. And for the second day in a row, the Rangers Jerseys won a practice game over the White Sox Jerseys.

Will Middlebrooks is trying to rekindle a career that started out so promisingly in 2012. Playing third base for Boston, he hit fifteen home runs and drove in fifty-four with just 267 at-bats, good for an OPS of .835.

Last season he ended up in Milwaukee, last stop on the way to Former Player status, where his career pretty much officially derailed. He earned just twenty-seven at-bats, and with those didn’t hit one out and drove in only one. His OPS was a dreadful .337.

And now he is getting one more chance with the Rangers.

He’s a long-shot. He certainly isn’t going to start at third. The Rangers have a pretty good guy there. He isn’t going to play first. So his only viable position is DH.

Since nobody else is hitting this spring, his Grapefruit league stats look pretty good by comparison.

Yesterday Middlebrooks homered in four at-bats, driving in two, raising his spring batting average to .241.

He probably won’t be coming to Arlington when the season opens. Maybe never. But he is proof that early flashes of brilliance earn a player all the chances in the world.

And even an outside chance is a chance.