What to expect from Texas Rangers rookie Brett Nicholas

With catcher Robinson Chirinos hitting the disabled list, the Texas Rangers promoted rookie Brett Nicholas to the major league roster this past weekend. Here's a quick take on his background.

Brett Nicholas played college baseball at Gonzaga in 2008, hitting .238/.327/.333 in 63 at-bats as a freshman. He transferred to Scottsdale Community College in 2009, hitting.378/.483/.617 as a sophomore, then moved on to the University of Missouri as a junior in 2010. He hit very well there (.351/.434/.592), earning a spot in the sixth round of the '10 draft by the Rangers.

At the time he was considered a solid and intriguing power hitter but his defense was rough.

Nicholas spent the 2010 and 2011 seasons in the Northwest League, then emerged with a .285/.351/.413 mark in High-A in 2012. He moved to Double-A in 2013 (.289/.357/.474), then spent the 2014 and 2015 seasons in Triple-A, hitting a combined .270/.317/.399 in 863 at-bats for Round Rock in the Pacific Coast League.

Listed at 6-2, 215, Nicholas is a left-handed hitter, age 27. Although he hit 10 homers in 2014 and 12 more in 2015, his production has been below average by PCL standards, with wRC+ marks of 83 and 91. He had a reputation as a disciplined hitter earlier in his career but Triple-A pitching has exposed impatience, with walk rates hovering around 6% and strikeouts around 20%. He does have power and is not a strict pull-type hitter when he gets the ball in the air, but there are a lot of 4-3 grounders on his resume and his relative lack of plate discipline has held his production back.

Nicholas has split the last two seasons between catcher and first base. He's a reliable first baseman but is a mixed bag behind the plate. He is not excessively error-prone and seems to block and receive well in the looks I've had at him, but his throwing is subpar and he's caught just 24% of runners the last two years. Overall I would rate his glove as playable; the throwing is an issue but the rest of his catching game is pretty solid.

His combination of decent defense at first base and catcher plus occasional left-handed power could make Nicholas a useful role player, but his issues with the running game and an over-aggressive hitting approach will likely prevent him from being a regular.