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SAN DIEGO -- Ian Desmond was an All-Star shortstop who was thought to be zeroing in on a nine-figure deal in free agency. A bad 2015 season and sub-par defense at short, however, dropped his value all the way down to a one-year, $8 million deal with the Rangers. Oh, and he had to move to the outfield.

"I've worked for years to get to the point where I could be like Omar Vizquel, but I can't do that," Desmond said of the realization that he needed to move. "So there's got to be some position on the field where I can make it work. I'm not saying I'm there yet, but I'm working on it."

He started the season in left field, but now holds down center. It's a work in progress, but he's adapting to life between veteran Shin-Soo Choo and rookie Nomar Mazara.

Ian Desmond, flanked by his outfield mates. USATSI

"At first, it was a little awkward in left," Desmond said. "When a ball goes up and I can't say 'I got it, I got it' and everywhere else has priority over me. That was an adjustment. And then, in center now I gotta call off these guys. I've got about 10 years to my right and a young phenom on the other side. They've been doing it their whole life and I've gotta call them off.

"I'm getting more comfortable and they trust me, so now it's not a big deal."

It still has to be a weird feeling after almost 8,000 innings in the bigs at shortstop. Regardless, Desmond is actually providing good defensive value this season per most advanced metrics. Meantime, he's hitting better than ever.

His previous career high in average was .292. He's hitting .322. OBP? Career high is .335 and he's at .375. He already has 22 doubles and 15 homers when he had 27 and 19, respectively, last year.

Is he satisfied?

"I feel like it's incomplete," said Desmond. "We're only just past the halfway mark. My mind is set much farther ahead."

And for the first-place Rangers, the best could well be yet to come in 2016 -- even with a converted shortstop manning center field.