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Inside the intense spring training that helped mold Isiah Kiner-Falefa into a full-time Rangers catcher

ARLINGTON - Over the last 10 days of spring training, when players are staying in games longer and taking more at-bats, Isiah Kiner-Falefa did his final prep for his first season as full-time catcher in an unusual manner.

Mostly, he didn't play.

Oh, he worked, but he didn't play.

The Rangers decided to put him through a late-spring catching intensive program to help accelerate the transition into full-time catching. The idea was to work on improving his catching foundation so that he could make small little increments of progress this season. On Monday, he made 1.