Texas Rangers Top 40 Prospects (2024)

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1. Wyatt Langford, LF

Drafted: 1st Round, 2023 from Florida (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Langford graduated as the no. 2 prospect in baseball. Despite his slow-ish start to the regular season, I wasn’t inclined to move him down, or to move Paul Skenes or James Wood (who have the same FV grade as Langford) ahead of him. This guy’s ability to clean out velocity around his hands is on a different level than all but a few big league hitters, and the fact that he was in the big leagues after playing a little over a month of minor league games is incredible. I’m not especially worried that his rookie season, which was interrupted by a May IL stint for hamstring tightness, has been middling so far. Here is his report from the offseason: Langford slugged an incredible .719 as a sophom*ore at Florida, a remarkable feat considering he barely played the season before. Then he slashed .373/.498/.784 as a junior and solidified himself as a top-three talent in a loaded draft. After he signed, Langford lit pro ball on fire for the better part of two months, slashing a combined .360/.480/.677 as he climbed all the way to Triple-A. During that 200 PA span, Langford’s underlying TrackMan data was so good that you could use it to spearhead an argument that he should be first on the overall prospect list, with plus measurable power and plate discipline, as well as an 81% contact rate. If you buy that Langford is actually that good, then he’s perhaps the most complete hitter in the minors.

It’s rare for hitters to hit the ball both as often as Langford has and as hard as he does, even among big leaguers. Buff and twitchy, the short-levered Langford’s arms are nearly as thick as they are long; Mike Trout is a fair body comp. His compact swing allows it to enter the hitting zone very quickly, enabling him to stay short to the ball and crush letter-high pitches, which is how he does most of his extra-base damage. Langford is apt to swing inside pitches on the outer third of the plate, perhaps because his levers are so short and he can’t reach out there, and also because he’s a bit of a bucket strider whose style of swinging is pretty common around baseball (Davis Schneider and a bunch of other Blue Jays swing like this, Henry Davis too). Langford’s lower half is quite flexible and strong, and so are his hands. He has titanic power and is much better than a lot of the other top prospects at turning on velocity.

Langford is also incredibly fast for a player his size, and some of his home-to-first times are a 70 on the scouting scale. Even though he has the speed for center and has played there a little bit, his feel for the position (and for playing outfield defense in general) is very poor. He’s simply not comfortable out there, but his pure speed gives him a shot to be an impact defender if he can find his footing over time. Langford is a much more dangerous hitter than Jackson Holliday is right now. His power is fully actualized and he’s much more likely to play an impact big league role from the jump than Holliday is, especially if the Rangers just DH Langford. Risk that this might happen anyway, especially with Leody Taveras and Evan Carter both around, is why Langford slots in as prospect no. 2 overall.

2. Evan Carter, LF

Drafted: 2nd Round, 2020 from Elizabethton HS (TN) (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Carter got off to a slow start in 2024 and then was shut down in May with a stress reaction in his back from which he has yet to return. As of this update, he has been in Arizona swinging a bat for about a week. Carter missed most of the 2021 campaign with the same injury. I have tended to be lower on Carter than the consensus because I don’t think he has huge physical tools and I feel more comfortable with him playing defense in left field than center, but he has elite secondary skills that buoy his performance. He graduates forecast as an above-average everyday left fielder. Here is his report from the offseason Top 100: In the Randy Arozarena vein, you just don’t want to overthink this one now that Carter has shown what he’s capable of in the game’s most intense moments. We stayed relatively low on Carter (he was one of the top 50-FV players at the end of last year) for a while, considering him more of a soft skills left fielder than a likely star, noting Brandon Nimmo as a potential comp who became exceptional. It looks like Carter is, too. We don’t expect he’ll perform to the level he did during his god-like call-up — .306/.413/.645 in September, .300/.417/.500 in the playoffs — but he’ll produce enough to be a very good left fielder in the event Leody Taveras hangs around to play center for the foreseeable future.

Carter’s plate discipline is incredible, and his nerves of steel were on display during the 2023 postseason, when he was very difficult for some of the best arms in baseball to make chase. He also has fantastic plate coverage and better ball-striking power on his more conservative swings than you’d expect from such a gangly and thin athlete. We don’t think the league has taken complete advantage of Carter’s issues against breaking stuff yet, especially back foot breakers, against which he was vulnerable in the minors. Carter struggles to contact these pitches when they’re well-executed (he actually had many more swings-and-misses than balls in play versus breakers in 2023), but he can punish the ones that don’t quite finish.

Defensively, Carter does some things very well in center field and other things not so well. He’s great at running down balls in the gaps, and at finding the wall and then the baseball again as he approaches the warning track. His reads on balls hit in front of him aren’t as crisp (he’ll make some diving plays in front of him that other center fielders make standing up), and his hands and ball skills are below-average. His arm plays above its raw grade because Carter’s exchange is so quick — he knows his best chance to hose someone is to get rid of the ball quickly and accurately, so he does. He’s definitely a fit in center field, but he isn’t a Gold Glover or anything like that, and not as good as Taveras, which probably means Carter will be one hell of a left field defender for the next little while. Carter lacks the prototypical power of a starting left fielder, but his plate skills and speed are going to elevate his OBP enough to make him a very valuable player.

3. Sebastian Walcott, 3B

Signed: International Signing Period, 2023 from Bahamas (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Walcott was seen some in the U.S. during the fall of 2021 and leapt off the field because of his physicality and power. The Rangers international scouting group was originally connected to a player named Camilo Diaz for a rumored bonus of $3 million but seemingly diverted to Walcott around this time (Diaz signed with Houston). Walcott signed in January of 2023 and spent a big chunk of spring training in Arizona, where he stood apart from his peers on the backfields because of his bat speed. He went to the D.R. for the start of the DSL season, but was quickly promoted to the Arizona Complex League and lit things up for a month before opponents realized he couldn’t recognize a breaking ball. He ended up having a .273/.325/.524 line in Arizona with a terrifying 6.4% walk rate and 32.5% strikeout rate. The Rangers sent Walcott, who turned 18 during spring training, straight to High-A at the start of 2024. As of this update, he is somehow sporting an above-average Sally League wRC+ even though he remains sushi raw in most facets of the game.

Walcott has immense physical ability and long-term projection. He looks like a future NFL wide receiver in his uniform and has the kind of pull power you’d expect from a prospect built like that. This is a 6-foot-4 teenager with elite hand speed and power projection who is sufficiently athletic that he might develop into a viable shortstop defender. He has one of the biggest ceilings in all of minor league baseball, but he’ll have to traverse a great developmental distance to max out. Walcott’s swing and feel to hit need a ton of polish. The timing of his footwork in the box isn’t great and he ends up lunging at breakers, plus Walcott’s swing is driven by his bottom hand in a path that slopes down unless he’s making contact way out in front of the plate, and he often has no chance of hitting pitches on the outer edge. It’s a long swing that so far has been enabled by elite bat speed (Walcott is generating plus big league peak exit velos as a freaking 18-year-old) and it might require eventual adjustment, but rather than intervene right now, I think it’s fine to see if Walcott’s timing and feel to hit come naturally over time.

Walcott has a fuzzy defensive projection because of his size and error-prone early career look at short. He just isn’t very good at fielding the baseball yet. Everything happens a beat too slow for him on defense, from his first step to his exchange, but again we’re talking about an 18-year-old who is only halfway through his second pro season. Independent of his hands and internal clock improving, Walcott might eventually move from shortstop to third base just because of his size at maturity. If that’s the case, it’s more important for his hit tool to become meaningfully better. Walcott’s offensive ceiling looks like Javier Báez‘s peak. I know the Rangers have been aggressive with his promotion pace but this guy is not on the fast track. It’s probably going to take a while, but it’ll be fun to watch this play out.

4. Alejandro Rosario, SP

Drafted: 5th Round, 2023 from Miami (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

5. Justin Foscue, 2B

Drafted: 1st Round, 2020 from Mississippi State (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

6. Winston Santos, SP

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2019 from Dominican Republic (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Santos has enjoyed a bat-missing boost across his entire repertoire, which was more average across the board last year and has played above this season. He was running a 2.80 ERA at High-A Hickory during the first half of 2024 and was promoted to Frisco not long before this system update.

Santos’ stuff isn’t meaningfully different than last year. His fastball is still his best pitch, topping out at 98 with plus riding life. His secondary pitches are more frequently average than plus in terms of their pure nastiness, but Santos’ command has begun to emerge as a potentially special aspect of his game and is elevating how they play. He’s always thrown plenty of strikes (this is a very athletic 6-foot tall righty with a simple operation), but his release has grown more and more consistent, and Santos’ stuff is more often in an enticing but unhittable location. His delivery is so effortless and easy that Santos looks like he’ll sustain his velo across a starter’s load of innings. He’s already done so under a 100-inning load and is on pace for a little more than that this season. Santos looks more likely to be parked at the back of a good rotation now and he’s a virtual lock to be added to the Rangers’ 40-man roster after the season, making it likely that he plays a spot starter role next year. His long-term forecast is as a no. 4/5 starter right on the fringe of making a contender’s playoff rotation.

7. Cameron Cauley, SS

Drafted: 3rd Round, 2021 from Barbers Hill HS (TX) (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Little Cam Cauley is going to strike out a lot, but he’s a top-of-the-scale athlete with playable power, nearly elite speed, and what will likely be rare defensive versatility. He runs 4.10 from home to first and has incredible range on defense. He can make acrobatic throws (the jump throw is a favorite of Cauley’s) and often has to because he doesn’t have the plant-and-throw hose of a typical shortstop (he’s also had some throwing accuracy issues in the past, which now seem remedied). Cauley is an athletic fit at every position, but he’s only played the infield so far in pro ball. His little frame skips across the dirt like a stone on a lake and he gets to grounders you assume are hits as they leave the bat. He has a chance to be a Gold Glove defender at shortstop and has the speed to play center field if the Rangers are inclined to try him out there.

Because Cauley has consistently struck out at about a 30% clip since signing, he is probably not going to be an everyday player, or at the very least will be a flawed one if he is. Still, his control of the strike zone (chase rates historically in the mid-20s) and playable power (short to the ball, strong top hand through contact, hard-hit rates north of 40% throughout his early 20s, 113 mph max exit this year) are going to allow him to do some stuff on offense amid all the Ks, and that might be enough for Cauley to play short everyday. Defensive versatility will help maximize his impact, especially with the presence of other shortstops in this org. The high-end outcome for Cauley would look like what Chris Taylor’s role and output was like during his peak. The disappointing outcome would be akin to what happened with Scott Kingery, though Cauley is a better athlete whose defense creates a higher floor than that.

8. Emiliano Teodo, SIRP

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2019 from Dominican Republic (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Teodo signed just before the 2020 season that never happened and only popped onto the radar in 2021 when we had consistent minor league activity on the backfields again. He spent 2021 on the complex in Arizona, then toured several universities in Texas with the Rangers’ Instructional League squad that was facing college teams in fall scrimmages. Those scrimmages were mostly scouted by folks in amateur departments who were there to evaluate Baylor and Texas Tech more than they were Rangers prospects. Teodo came out sitting 98-101 mph, blowing the minds of scouts sifting through an ocean of college guys sitting 92.

Since then, Teodo has pitched admirably as a starter all the way to Double-A Frisco. He has consistently posted the same strikeout (31-33%) and walk rates (12%) at every level. Because of his size and below-average control, it’s very likely that Teodo will end up pitching in relief, but his stuff is so good that he might be a closer. He’s sitting 97-99 and has touched 102 as a starter while working as many as 84 innings in a single season, a mark he’s poised to blow through this year. If there’s a reason to be more optimistic about Teodo starting, it’s that his delivery doesn’t have the NC-17 violence that is typically required for someone his size to throw this hard. But what seals the relief projection for me here is Teodo’s fastball shape, which is more tail-oriented and is yielding contact rates that are much higher than is typical against a fastball this hard. I buy he’s a starter-quality athlete, but he’s still going to be a rather inefficient operator.

Teodo’s best sliders are better than his best fastballs. They average 88 mph and spin at roughly 2,800 rpm. His ability to land the pitch for a strike is superior to that of his fastball by a pretty wide margin, and Teodo might even take a slider-first approach if he’s put in the bullpen. I have Teodo throwing changeups 6% of the time as of list publication. It’s not a terrible offering because hitters are so geared up his fastball, and I’d like to see him use it more to really give it a shot at developing. It’d be nice to have even if he shifts to relief.

9. Kumar Rocker, SIRP

Drafted: 1st Round, 2022 from Vanderbilt (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Rocker looked like a first rounder for much of his high school career, but his stuff dipped as the 2018 draft approached while his asking price did not, so teams backed away and Rocker went to Vanderbilt. After some rocky starts early during his freshman year, something clicked for the right-hander and he was utterly dominant during the second half, culminating in a 19-strikeout no-hitter in a postseason game against Duke. That outing, and Vanderbilt’s run to a national title, made Rocker a household name even among casual baseball fans. He made just three starts (and had some command issues) as a sophom*ore before COVID-19 ended the season. Then Rocker came out in 2021 in what looked like the best shape he’d ever been in and with a slightly higher release point. He was fantastic early on, but his stuff slipped as the spring progressed (Rocker’s fastball averaged 95 mph in February, but 93 in June). His overall performance at Vanderbilt — 236.2 IP, 321 K, 68 BB, 2.89 ERA against mostly SEC competition — was incredible, especially when viewed in light of his stuff’s inconsistent quality.

Those fluctuations became inextricable from Rocker’s pre-draft profile, though. It meant most teams thought he belonged behind similarly talented, but safer-feeling prospects in the 2021 draft rather than being clearly in the top tier, and Rocker fell a little further than expected on draft night, going 10th overall to the Mets. New York, whose rest-of-draft behavior indicated they had come to an overslot agreement with Rocker, was scared enough of his post-draft physical to squash his deal. He pitched in the independent Frontier League in 2022 and his velocity was mostly back, but again his arm slot had totally changed and was much lower than when he finished up at Vanderbilt. The Rangers surprised everyone when they made Rocker, who was ranked 60th on my draft board and evaluated as a quick-moving reliever, a top five pick in the next year’s draft, albeit at an under-slot amount.

Rocker pitched in the 2022 Arizona Fall League, where his slider looked incredible and his 95-97 mph fastball played down due to its tailing shape and his fringe command of it. He looked like he was projected: A quick-moving reliever who you want in the big leagues pronto, while he’s healthy. Sadly, Rocker’s elbow blew out in May of 2023 and he had Tommy John, shelving him until he made his first rehab appearance a few days before this update. Rocker touched 99 mph and worked two innings. It looks like the Rangers are going to keep developing him as a starter, and unless the big league club gets hot soon and is suddenly both contending and in desperate need of a good reliever, there’s no reason to ‘pen Rocker right now. He’s still projected here as a contender’s third bullpen banana due to his health track record and “round down” fastball playability. It’s conceivable he could debut during the second half of 2024.

10. Jack Leiter, SIRP

Drafted: 1st Round, 2021 from Vanderbilt (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

I thought the way Leiter’s fastball plays would help enable him to work as a starter despite imprecise feel for location, but more and more that’s looking like it won’t be possible. Leiter continues to start at Triple-A Round Rock and has made a couple of spot starts in the big leagues this year, but his walk rates are still elevated and the visual assessment of his command remains poor. I think especially while Leiter has several option years remaining, he’s likely to remain a starter. It’s too important for contending teams like Texas to have optionable starter depth to get through a season. He has the rest of his option years to develop in the rotation, but as those run dry, it becomes more and more probable that Leiter will move to the bullpen.

He is sitting 96 and touching 99 as a starter while generating seven feet of extension and plus vertical break. If you want to be optimistic about the future of Leiter’s release consistency, you can look at the way MacKenzie Gore righted the ship after he had severe strike-throwing issues with the Padres; similar to Gore, the explosiveness of Leiter’s fastball should give him some margin for error in the zone. He’s been homer-prone as a pro, which is somewhat inherent in the way Leiter has to work with his fastball in order to miss bats — he yields a ton of fly balls. The heater alone should allow Leiter to be a very good reliever in the event that he does move to the bullpen, even if he doesn’t experience a velo bump when he does. He has a five-pitch mix but only the fastball and slider are consistently good, and that’s funneling his forecast toward the bullpen as well. I’d expect Leiter to pitch in a spot start or backend capacity for another year or so before he’s shifted into the bullpen, where I think he’ll be one of the club’s best couple of relievers. His stuff is projected in anticipation of the move.

11. Yeremi Cabrera, CF

Signed: International Signing Period, 2022 from Dominican Republic (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Cabrera signed for $10,000 in 2022 and spent two seasons in the DSL, producing enormous in-game power in the second. He came to the U.S. for baseball activity this year and has continued to slug in a profound way on the complex in Surprise en route to the ACL home run lead.

If you catch Cabrera on the right day, he looks like a mini Juan Soto. His swing specifically is a dead ringer for Soto’s in that it is ferocious and also geared for lift in the extreme. Cabrera has rare ability to uppercut the baseball basically all over the zone. He’s even on an uphill path through the very top of the strike zone, à la Soto and Anthony Volpe. You can see this watching Cabrera swing a handful of times, but when you dig into the data, it’s even more extreme. Cabrera has an average launch angle of 27 degrees. Only Daulton Varsho (also 27 degrees) is even in that neighborhood among current big leaguers. This isn’t necessarily a good thing — part of the reason there’s only one big leaguer with similar launch is because it isn’t a sustainable way to approach big league pitching unless you’re pretty special. Cabrera’s bat speed and rotational verve is such that I think he’ll be able to get to most of his considerable raw power in games but, like Varsho, it’s going to come at the expense of his batting average in a severe way. Cabrera’s breaking ball recognition also isn’t awesome, which adds to the strikeout component of his profile.

Scouts sitting on Texas in the ACL haven’t all gushed about Cabrera. Plenty see him as a fringe fit in center field and then get scared of his contact profile once they project him to an outfield corner. How Cabrera’s plate discipline evolves is going to be key for his profile. His swing works in such a way that he basically can’t make contact with pitches that aren’t in the strike zone (he has a 50% O-Contact% as of publication, 65% overall), and he’ll ideally develop something more than the average plate discipline he has right now. This is a player who’s really fun to scout in person and on the spreadsheet, and one of the more fascinating young hitters in the minors. I like what’s happening here enough to have the equivalent of a mid-first round draft grade on Cabrera. He’s freaky in mostly good ways and has legit plus bat speed. He’s probably going to be a flawed big league hitter but will do enough damage to be a good one anyway.

12. Aidan Curry, SP

Undrafted Free Agent, 2020 (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Most 2020 undrafted free agents were college prospects, but the super lanky Curry signed out of high school and put himself on the prospect map with a stunning first full season in pro ball that saw him post a 30% K% and 9% BB% across 88 innings. Because of his size and burgeoning arm strength, he was an offseason Pick to Click.

Curry has taken a half step back at Hickory this season and is running an ERA over 7.00 as of list publication. This is despite Curry’s fastball velocity climbing again. It’s up a tick from last year, sitting 93-95. Curry mixes four- and two-seamers, and those plus his slider make up the lion’s share of his pitch usage right now. Neither of his fastballs is performing especially well; they look pretty average and lack substantial difference in their movement. Curry’s 81-84 mph slider is still his bread-and-butter and projects to a plus pitch at maturity. He also has a slower curveball and firm changeup, but their usage has been scant. My notes last year had Curry’s changeup cutting on him often. That isn’t happening so much any more and I still like the long-term projection of his change because of how loose and whippy his arm is.

I’d really like to see Curry take a step forward from a strength and conditioning standpoint. He’s lanky and tall, but his frame isn’t well-composed; he looks like he could be so much stronger and more athletic than he is right now. Given that Curry’s looseness is a big part of his talent, I wouldn’t want him to overdo it and tighten up. But most big league pitchers have an element of strength to them that Curry does not right now. I still think his long-term upside is exciting, but I’ve dialed down my aggressive grade from last year’s cycle and think there’s a greater chance Curry becomes a reliever.

13. Kohl Drake, SP

Drafted: 11th Round, 2023 from Walters State CC (TN) (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

14. Izack Tiger, SIRP

Drafted: 7th Round, 2023 from Butler County CC (KS) (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

15. Marc Church, SIRP

Drafted: 18th Round, 2019 from North Atlanta HS (GA) (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

16. Paulino Santana, RF

Signed: International Signing Period, 2024 from Dominican Republic (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

There was a time when my sources connected Santana to the Dodgers, but in the months leading up to international amateurs signing in January, something changed and he suddenly had a $1.3 million agreement with Texas. Santana played a little bit for the Arkansas Sticks travel ball team (Logan O’Hoppe, Jonathan Ornelas, Jaden Hill and many others have worn that uni) and stood apart from all but a few talented U.S. high schoolers at the events he attended. He’s an explosive rotational athlete with a tendency to inside-out pitches to right field. His proclivity for opposite field contact is so extreme that it’s actually a bit concerning, as Santana’s barrel takes forever to get to a spot where he’d be able to pull the ball with power. He has the best feel to hit of any of the Rangers’ DSL prospects and is also among the most projectable.

17. Owen White, SP

Drafted: 2nd Round, 2018 from Carson HS (NC) (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

18. Mitch Bratt, SP

Drafted: 5th Round, 2021 from Georgia Premier Academy (GA) (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Bratt continues to track like a high-floored backend starter because of his command and deception. When Bratt was drafted it was hoped that his lanky frame would fill out and yield more velocity. That hasn’t happened, but Bratt has carved the lower minors anyway and has a 3.53 career ERA in his 30 High-A appearances. He spent last year at Hickory as well, but a lat strain cut his season in half. His walk rate has dipped into elite territory this year as Bratt toys with hitters at the top of the strike zone. Indeed, everything he is trying to do involves using the upper boundary of the zone, including with pitch types that one wouldn’t ordinarily associate with higher locations.

Bratt hides the ball forever, has a clean, repeatable arm action, and generates rise-and-run action on his 90 mph fastball. He’ll locate it above the zone to set up his two breaking balls, which start high and then bend into the strike zone at different speeds and depths. Even Bratt’s changeup tends to occupy the upper half of the strike zone, tailing away from it to his arm side rather than finish with sink. It generates awkward swings and is getting a lot of groundballs for the second straight year. This is a very interesting profile powered by Bratt’s craftsmanship and command. He’s tracking like a post-2025 40-man addition and eventual backend starter.

19. Joseph Montalvo, SP

Drafted: 20th Round, 2021 from Central Pointe Christian (FL) (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

20. Caden Scarborough, SP

Drafted: 6th Round, 2023 from Harmony HS (FL) (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

21. Cody Freeman, 3B

Drafted: 4th Round, 2019 from Etiwanda HS (CA) (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

The Rangers have dispensed with trying to convert Freeman to catcher and he was playing third base exclusively this year before a couple recent games at second base. Freeman’s arm accuracy can be mixed, but he’s otherwise a very good low-to-the-ground defender with plus hands and footwork, and range that’s a tick below average. He smothers short hops especially well.

On offense, Freeman continues to make plus rates of contact and, despite his shorter stature, he consistently hits the ball hard. Freeman is a punctual hitter who covers the very top of the strike zone well. He has dangerous pull-side power versus breaking balls but tends to be limited to all-fields singles spray against fastballs. If he can effectively re-engage with second base (the last time Freeman played there regularly was 2019), he’ll be more rosterable. Right now he looks like an above-replacement third baseman who’ll eventually get a long-term opportunity with a rebuilding club to see if his hit tool can hold up to big league stuff.

22. Jacob Latz, SIRP

Drafted: 5th Round, 2017 from Kent State (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

23. Cole Winn, SIRP

Drafted: 1st Round, 2018 from Orange Lutheran HS (CA) (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

24. Carson Coleman, SIRP

Undrafted Free Agent, 2020 (NYY)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

25. Brock Porter, SP

Drafted: 4th Round, 2022 from Orchard Lakes St. Mary’s HS (MI) (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

26. Gleider Figuereo, 3B

Signed: International Signing Period, 2021 from Dominican Republic (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Figueroa’s physicality enabled him to dominate rookie ball. He slugged .616 and hit nine homers in 35 games during the 2022 ACL, but he was greeted rudely by full-season pitching, which held him to a .220/.300/.323 line in 2023. He slugged his way out of Low-A in the first half of 2024 and was promoted to High-A shortly before list publication.

Figueroa has a very entertaining lefty uppercut swing that generates huge pull power. He’s allergic to spin and is hitting .135 versus breakers in 2024 as of list publication. Already approaching the line between muscular and thick, Figueroa is going to have to keep his build in check to remain at third base. He has the arm to play there but the plays he tries to make tend to unfold too slowly and result in superfluous bang-bang plays at first base. A 1B/3B defensive combo probably keeps Figueroa on the roster as a part-time corner slugger if he can continue to improve his defense. His contact issues will probably prevent him from being an everyday player.

27. Skylar Hales, SIRP

Drafted: 4th Round, 2023 from Santa Clara (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

28. Dane Acker, MIRP

Drafted: 4th Round, 2020 from Oklahoma (OAK)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Acker was topping out around 93 mph at Oklahoma before the 2020 shutdown, was drafted by Oakland that year, and then was traded to Texas as part of the Jonah Heim/Elvis Andrus deal during the offseason. The next spring he came out sitting 94-99, but he blew out after just a few regular season starts and needed TJ. Acker barely pitched in 2022 and was wild when he did, which is common coming off TJ. His walk rates continued in the 11-13% range in 2023 as Acker climbed to Double-A, which is where he has been again in 2024. He’s never returned to the upper-90s peak of his first pro spring, but Acker is still sitting 92-95 with above-average life.

His delivery is quite a bit different than when Acker was in college. He gets to a due north arm slot more comfortably via a short and open stride toward the plate. He deploys a four-pitch mix headlined by his changeup, which he’ll throw to both left- and right-handed hitters. His curveball has lovely shape and dual utility as both a strike-getter and a finishing pitch, but good upper-level hitters are starting to identify it out of hand, and I think it’s going to be more vulnerable to SLG versus big leaguers. A football-style slider rounds out a mix that I think will play best in low-leverage long relief.

29. Braylin Morel, RF

Signed: International Signing Period, 2023 from Dominican Republic (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

30. Ryan Lobus, MIRP

Undrafted Free Agent, 2023 (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Lobus has been a nice undrafted find and has a WHIP just a hair over 1.00 at High-A so far this season. He has solid velocity for a sidearmer, sitting 90-93 with tail. He peppers the glove side of the plate with cutters that finish near the top of the zone and sliders that finish in the dirt. Righties struggle to parse his fastball and slider from one another out of hand, and Lobus locates well. He tries to crowd lefties with cutters. Lobus has a really great chance to be a low-leverage long reliever because of his funk and command.

31. Daniel Robert, SIRP

Drafted: 21th Round, 2018 from Auburn (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Robert was a two-way player at Auburn but he mostly hit, throwing fewer than 16 innings in college. He only started pitching full-time in 2018 and then missed time due to the pandemic and injuries, and he’s been kept alive on the Rangers prospect list for the last couple of years even though he’s pushing 30. Robert was called up just a couple days before list publication and made his big league debut.

Robert has been carving Triple-A this season (35.1% K%, 6.1% BB%) using a sweeper-heavy approach. Nearly 60% of his pitches are mid-80s sweepers, which he uses both as a chase pitch and to get ahead of righties. He mixes in two fastball variants, one a letter-high chase offering, the other a sinker version to his arm side. There’s an occasional changeup here too, but they aren’t very good. This is a pretty standard low-leverage relief look, but it’s a great story for an almost 30-year-old rookie conversion arm to make it at all.

32. Davis Wendzel, 3B

Drafted: 1st Round, 2019 from Baylor (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Wendzel was a draft-eligible sophom*ore in 2018 and had a strong offensive season, but he wasn’t drafted high enough to sign in part because of his conditioning and then had to swim upstream against models as a junior because he was over 22 on draft day. He has dealt with health issues since college, which, along with the pandemic, prevented him from playing more than 45 games at any single affiliate in a given season until 2022, when he had an awful 66 wRC+ at Round Rock and was left off Texas’ 40-man roster. He rebounded in 2023 with 30 homers, but he was only a hair above the league average in terms of overall offense. Injuries to Josh Jung and Justin Foscue facilitated Wendzel’s big league debut in April and he now has enough big league roster days to lose rookie status.

He’s cut his Triple-A strikeout rate in half via a swing change. Wendzel’s hack now looks like a carbon copy of Foscue’s, with more of a toe point stride than his previous leg kick, and a super shallow load to keep him short to the ball. Wendzel is an above-average third base defender with experience at several other positions, but he lacks the physical tools to play them unless it’s an emergency. He’s an above-replacement third baseman whose new swing might facilitate an everyday opportunity with a lesser club that wants to see if he can sustain his 2024 strikeout avoidance over a longer period of time.

33. Liam Hicks, C

Drafted: 9th Round, 2021 from Arkansas State (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

34. Abimelec Ortiz, 1B

Undrafted Free Agent, 2021 (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

35. Tyler Owens, SIRP

Drafted: 13th Round, 2019 from Trinity Catholic HS (GA) (ATL)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

36. Robby Ahlstrom, SIRP

Drafted: 7th Round, 2021 from Oregon (NYY)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

37. Reid Birlingmair, SIRP

Drafted: 28th Round, 2018 from Illinois – Chicago (OAK)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

38. Adrian Rodriguez, SIRP

Drafted: 39th Round, 2019 from Florida Virtual School (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

39. Victor Simeon, SIRP

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2018 from Dominican Republic (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

40. Ismael Agreda, SIRP

Signed: International Signing Period, 2021 from Venezuela (TEX)

Tool Grades (Present/Future)