Despite being just one game into their Spring Training exhibition slate, the Texas Rangers have already received some tough injury news.

On Saturday morning, Rangers manager Skip Schumaker announced that Cody Freeman will miss four to six weeks with a fracture in his back.

After the four-week mark passes, Freeman will just then be able to start his Spring Training and ramp up for the 2026 season.

With the news, Freeman is all but certainly not going to have enough time to ramp up and put himself in position to crack the Rangers' Opening Day roster.

“He felt it a little bit a couple of days ago, but not after one particularly swing or ground ball or agility thing,” Schumacher said.

“He just kinda felt it, so we thought it was just going to be a day or two, and that there was a chance he could even come into the game yesterday, but it didn’t feel good again, so just out of precaution, we went to get some imaging, so obviously disappointed for him," Schumaker said.

Freeman’s injury obviously changes the dynamics of the competition for spots on the Rangers' bench.

Someone like Ezequiel Duran now figures to have an increased opportunity to make the Opening Day roster as someone who plays the infield at a high level.

“It’s why depth is important,” Schumaker said. “You knew this was going to come up at some point in Spring Training, you hope it doesn’t continue to come up, but it’s part of the deal, but it was a position battle anyway, so you’re just going to have more opportunity for the other guys."

Last season, Freeman became a spark plug for the Rangers, hitting .228 with three home runs and 15 RBI, but was key in doing things that didn’t necessarily show up in the box score.

Freeman was able to put together a lot of quality at-bats and played good defense while being very versatile.

Those qualities were certainly going to give Schumaker and his staff something to consider while assembling their team for the start of the season.

Nonetheless, the Rangers know that even if it’s not going to be on Opening Day, Freeman will have an impact on things at some point in 2026.

The Rangers also scratched Michael Helman from Saturday’s Spring Training lineup, but that was just precautionary.

Schumaker said that Helman told him that he still wanted to play, but with it being so early in the spring, things just didn’t make sense on that front.

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