Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as my own observations. This is the fourth 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 we 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.
Rookie-Level Names to Know
- Jose De Jesus, OF
- Antonis Macias, 2B
- Andry Batista, OF
- Pablo Guerrero, OF
- Yolfran Castillo, SS
- Angel Herrera, OF
De Jesus is a well-rounded switch-hitting center fielder with modest, table-setter’s tools. Macias is a hitterish, medium-framed infielder who looks like he’ll end up in the 2B/3B area on defense and have 45 power. Batista is my favorite of the several big-framed, projectable outfielders in Texas’ DSL group. He’s 6-foot-4 and still growing into his body, but has pretty good baseball feel. He’s hitting .190 right now, but he’s really interesting. Another of Vladdy Sr.’s boys, Guerrero is a 17-year-old power hitter who has already been pushed to the Complex League. He has considerable hit tool risk and no obvious position. Castillo is another lanky DSL hitter but has lesser bat speed. He’s an infielder, though. Herrera, also in the DSL, is a 70 runner in center field.
Arrow Down Guys
- Jesus Lopez, CI
- Ian Moller, C
- Anthony Gutierrez, OF
- Antoine Kelly, LHP
- Ricky DeVito, RHP
- Aaron Zavala, OF
- Dustin Harris, 1B
Lopez and Moller play a premium position, and you want to keep those guys alive for longer as prospects. Lopez was a Complex League favorite of mine last year, but his tools have backed up. Moller’s issues on defense remain mostly unchanged, but he’s still hitting enough to hope they’ll improve. If you’re a Rangers fan who has been following my updates on their system for the last several years, you might already know that I haven’t really been on Anthony Gutierrez during his lifetime as a prospect. I can absolutely see why the Rangers and others have been excited about him, but his lever length and chase have kept him in this section of the list throughout his career, and that stuff is starting to have a more meaningful impact on his offensive performance as he gets deeper into full-season ball. Kelly was a junior college draftee who struggled to stay healthy during his time with the Brewers. He was traded to Texas as part of the 2022 Matt Bush swap and aside from 2023, when he first moved to the bullpen, his feel for release has been so out of control that he’s walked a batter per inning or more for huge chunks of his career. He has an ideal pitcher’s build, rare mid-90s arm strength for a lefty, and a huge-breaking slider. He was DFA’ed Monday. The rest of this group has struggled for the better part of the last two years, especially those corner bats, and it’s tough to consider them prospects when that’s the case.
27th Man Types
- Josh Stephan, RHP
- Jax Biggers, UTIL
- Chedry Vargas, 2B
- Blaine Crim, 1B
Stephan’s stuff was just a little too light to make the main section of the list. He’s a lower slot pitchability righty with an east/west attack and is barely walking anybody at Double-A. Biggers has plus plate skills and solid-average feel for the barrel. He’s limited to an up/down utility role (2B/3B/SS/LF) due to his 30-grade pop. I don’t think Vargas has the arm for shortstop, and his chase is going to make it tough for his offense to profile at second base. I know his surface stats are great right now, but his underlying stuff is not as strong and neither was his tape. Crim’s 2024 performance has dipped compared to his usually steady minor league production, but he’s still hitting the ball hard at Round Rock. Righty-hitting first base profiles are tough, and Crim has tended to be in this section of the Rangers list even when he’s raking. He’d be an interesting target for an Asian pro team.
Weirdos
- Geisel Cepeda, OF
- Chase Lee, RHP
- Jackson Kelley, RHP
- Arturo Disla, 1B
Cepeda is a well-built Cuban outfielder in his mid-20s who has been very hard to strike out. He hits for almost no power and his swing is super weird, but if it can ever get to a place that taps into more power, he could be a late breakout guy. Lee and Kelley are submarine relievers. Disla was an undrafted free agent from an NAIA school who was sent to the DSL last year. He’s a husky guy with high-effort bat speed. It’s a lot of fun to watch him swing as hard as he can.
System Overview
With the top two guys on this list graduating, Texas’ farm system is a little worse than average. Langford carries so much weight that his graduation alone is a huge blow to the way the system grades out. But when your big league team has a Wyatt Langford, who cares? The Rocker/Porter draft probably wasn’t a great idea, but it isn’t as if the realistic alternatives from 2022 are killing it. This system is very thin on hitters, so thin that I think it should be a priority for the org in the upcoming draft. I wonder if the Rangers could make a blockbuster deadline deal if they wanted to without parting with guys from the big league team, because aside from Walcott, they lack a potential impact player to move. The pitching in this org has generally gotten better. Several of these players are throwing harder, or have made a significant change to their stuff or deliveries compared to last season. It will help ensure this window of contention isn’t hamstrung by a lack of pitching depth. On depth, this is an average system. With the two outfielders graduating, the top tier is a little light.
