What does 2018 hold for Ryan Rua?

Opening day, 2015. The Rangers and Yovani Gallardo are at O.co Stadium taking on the Oakland Athletics and Sonny Gray, who has allowed nary a single in seven innings. With the count 0-2, Ryan Rua smacks a ground ball between first and second base. The no-hit bid is over. Five pitches later, so is Rua’s top of the eighth: he is doubled off first base when Mitch Moreland lined out to first baseman (and future Rangers farmhand) Ike Davis.

The Rangers avoided arbitration with Rua on Tuesday, signing the first-baseman-slash-outfielder-slash-infielder to a one-year deal worth $870,000. It’s not the 2018 contract you might have expected on that April day in Oakland, but it might have made more sense by season’s end. Rua sprained his ankle just four days later during the home opener and when he returned, he struggled. After putting up a .295 batting average after debuting on August 29th 2014, Rua hit 102 points lower in the same number of games in 2015.

2016 and 2017 found him on the Opening Day rosters again, but on the bench both times. Left field had been a rotating door since the departure of David Murphy, and the opportunity for playing time seemed to beg the Ohio native to solve the puzzle in 2016. In 2017, Rua was primed to contend for the first base job before the team signed Mike Napoli. For two years, Rua seemed to flail just under the surface, just a hair’s breadth of surface tension from breathable air. He was still hitting left-handed pitching, but was struggling too much against right-handers, and too much in away games.

August 12th, 2017: Ryan Rua is demoted once again to Round Rock, having been called up to the big league club on July 31st. In the subsequent 12 days, he has gotten neither a single plate appearance, nor a single pitch of time in the field. He has occupied a roster spot for nearly two weeks without a single second of playing time.

In 2017, Rua got more at-bats in AAA than the big leagues. The once-future king of left field was now the September defensive replacement for 22-year-old prospect Willie Calhoun.

Rua will turn 28 during Spring Training, and the more future he lives, the less of it is left to dream on. Left field is a chair with too many butts, and thus, Joey Gallo is—barring an unlikely switcheroo with Adrian Beltre—the presumptive Opening Day first baseman. Rua now finds himself competing with Drew Robinson and fellow once-future royalty Jurickson Profar for a roster spot. All three guys can play multiple infield and outfield positions. Play with the numbers long enough and you can start to see yourself hoping for a platoon of Rua’s .283/.330/.431 line against left-handed starting pitchers and Drew Robinson’s .303/.432/.509 against right-handers in AAA last season*.

But roster constructions have other considerations besides cherry-picked splits. Profar has the edge, if for no other reason than he’s out of minor league options, and thus must pass through waivers to be sent to the minor leagues in 2018. Robinson only made his big-league debut last season, so he’s likely to bounce back and forth a little, barring a Profar trade. Carlos Tocci is a Rule Five pick, and must stay on the big-league roster all season or be offered back to the Phillies. Hanser Alberto will compete for a utility role in Spring Training.

You may have noticed: we’re starting to run out of bench spots.

Rua—with one option year left—may find himself in the minor leagues on Opening Day for the first time since 2014.

*Keen Observers may protest: “Uhhh narrative much? Robinson hit .333/.400/.556 against lefties at the big-league level in 2017!” That’s true. Keener observers will note the reason: Robinson’s woes against left-handed pitching were so well-documented that he only got 20 plate appearances against southpaws, in comparison to his 101 against right-handers.)