Top Prospects Series
Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Texas Rangers. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as my own observations. This is the third year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but I use that as a rule of thumb.
A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much deeper overview can be found here.
All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here.
Other Prospects of Note
Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.
Famous FallersChandler Pollard, MIFAnthony Gutierrez, OFYeison Morrobel, OFMax Acosta, SSDanyer Cueva, SS
Aside from Pollard, this is a “why isn’t this guy on the list?” group. Pollard is twitchy, speedy, and athletic, but he’s still very raw for his age. He was a six-figure Day Two pick in 2022 who was signed away from a Washington State commit. Same as last year, I have just never really been on Gutierrez. I see why he got a big bonus — he has prototypical size and body projection — but his swing is so long and I don’t think he’s going to hit. Morrobel’s fall here is the biggest re-evaluation on the entire list. He looks stiff and his swing has become very strange. Acosta and Cueva are more 2B/3B types on defense and don’t have the hit tools to support a profile there.
Corner BatsMarcos Torres, 1BBlaine Crim, 1BDiosbel Arias, INFTrevor Hauver, 1B/LFAlejandro Osuna, RFYosy Galan, OF
Torres is a complex-level first baseman and corner outfielder with precocious power and some strikeout risk. Crim and Arias are long-time performers in the minors. Crim is a short-levered 5 bat with 5 power, but that doesn’t profile at first base. He could be a stud in Asia. Arias still plays a few positions but his offense has keeled off a little bit. Hauver walks a ton and hits the ball in the air, but now he’s a 1B/LF after he was tried at second base early in his career. Osuna is a compact, young A-ball outfielder with great bat-to-ball feel but very little power and physical projection. Galan has 7 raw and a 2 bat.
Relief ProspectsNick Starr, RHPLeandro Lopez, RHPAlberto Mota, RHPNick Bautista III, RHPAneudis Mejia, RHP
Starr, Lopez, and Mota are all relievers with a vertical fastball/breaking ball combo and 30 control. Each of them sits in the 93-95 mph range. Bautista and Mejia are complex-level arms who other scouts like, but both were very wild for me during in-person looks. Bautista will show you 94-97 with a good slider. Mejia sits 93-94 and will flash a good curveball.
Injured Arms and Depth StartersAvery Weems, LHPScott Engler, RHPRyan Garcia, RHPDane Acker, RHP
Weems and Engler are recovering from TJ. Engler’s was over a year ago and I’m not sure why he isn’t back yet. Weems’ was more recent and he’ll miss all of 2023. Garcia (once a high draft pick out of UCLA) and Acker (part of the Jonah Heim/Elvis Andrus trade) are sitting 91-93 with vertical ride and a breaking ball that plays okay off of it. Acker leans a little more on a changeup and has good groundball rates this year. Garcia is a four-pitch guy who varies breaking ball shape.
System Overview
Even though any reasonable person would agree that the Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker picks have not been great to this point, this is still a very good farm system. The Rangers have enough depth to add to their playoff-chasing big league roster without literally selling the farm, and they have enough high-end talent to compete in basically any deadline discussion, especially if they’re willing to part with Sebastian Walcott, Luisangel Acuña, and/or Evan Carter. Texas’ minor league system has above-average overall depth, a much more robust high-end than all but a few other systems, and a nice balance of upside (Walcott, Acuña, Tekoah Roby) and floor (Cody Bradford, Carter, Justin Foscue). It’s easily a top 10 system and, even with Jung peeling off the top because of his graduation, will probably stay there after adding a top four draft pick.
The Rangers do have trouble developing command, though that’s an industry-wide issue. There are pitchers in this system who came with command already on board (Josh Stephan, Winston Santos, Mitch Bratt, etc.), but very few of the ones with huge stuff (Alex Speas, Emiliano Teodo, Leiter) have improved under the Texas dev umbrella. Again, like plate discipline for hitters, command may just be a skill one has or doesn’t, not really something that can be teased out.
It’s possible the Rangers international program hit it very big with Walcott, but their track record of late has been pretty mixed. As the club seemed to pivot away from the Chris Seise/Bubba Thompson types in the draft (they’ll spend $250,000-400,000 on risky, toolsy guys but rarely huge dollars anymore) and turned toward the Thomas Saggeses of the world, Texas’ international approach has remained the same. Weird, unpredictable stuff happened in Bayron Lora’s case, but hit tool risk is present in a lot of their guys, even the ones I like (including Jesus Lopez and Walcott). If even one guy becomes a Tatis-like talent, it more than makes up for having five years of Keithron Mosses, but unless you think Leody Taveras’ breakout is real, nobody like that has emerged from the Surprise backfields.