When asked to name the top three WAR leaders in the American League (excluding pitchers), there aren't many people who would say Ezequiel Duran.

The Texas Rangers shortstop currently finds himself in the same conversation as Yordan Alvarez and Bobby Witt Jr.

To say Duran has been great this year would be an understatement. According to FanGraphs, he's a 5.1 WAR player, which only trails Alvarez (6.0) and Witt Jr. (6.5).

Pitching-wise, Dylan Cease (5.5) and Cam Schlittler (5.4) have him beat, but that's an entirely different conversation to be had.

Looking at the National League, Pete Crow-Armstrong leads the entire league (9.9) and there's a sizeable gap between him and Shohei Ohtani (6.8).

Regardless, when including pitchers and looking at both the AL and NL, Duran's 5.1 WAR is good for 12th in all of baseball.

If the Rangers are able to sneak into the playoffs, the 27-year-old is a big reason why. He's hitting .277 this season, which leads the team, as does his .337 on-base percentage.

Duran is third on the team with his .457 slugging percentage, but it comes as no surprise that he trails someone like Joc Pederson, along with Justin Foscue, in that category.

Granted, Foscue has 277 fewer at-bats than Duran, and Pederson has 112 fewer. It still is incredibly impressive to see Duran, someone with eight fewer homers than Pederson, have a slugging percentage that's only slightly lower than Pederson's .485.

To be in the same conversation as Alvarez and Witt is sensational, to say the least. The Rangers have gotten everything and more out of a player who's only making $1.375 million this season, but arbitration is coming up and his tremendous year could change everything.

Duran still has two more arbitration years, so the Rangers either need to lock him up to a major extension now, or start planning a trade/escape plan for when he becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2029.

There's no telling as to how good Duran could be, but currently, he's one of the most slept-on players not just in the AL, but in all of baseball.

Not only does Duran lead the Rangers in quite a few categories, but he's either second or third in most of the other major ones.

Through Sept. 7, Duran has the third most at-bats (473), games played (135), and home runs (17); he's second in hits (131), doubles (26), RBIs (78), total bases (216), and tied for stolen bases (11); he also leads the team in runs (65) and is tied for the most triples (4).