As we arrive at the upper half of this list, the prospect enthusiasts among you may be wondering about a handful of players in the Rangers’ farm system and whether they’re about to show up in these rankings … or won’t at all.
Any such suspense on outfielder Bayron Lora was eliminated last month when it was reported two weeks ago that the Rangers parted ways with the 20-year-old.
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Texas signed 43 players in the 2019-2020 international amateur period, and used more than 60 percent of its cap space on Lora, inking him to a $3.9 million bonus. Baseball America had ranked him third among all international free agents that year based on the double-plus raw power the 6’3” (and growing) Lora was already exhibiting at age 16. The Rangers kept him in the Dominican Triki League that summer and brought him to Arizona for Fall Instructs after that, but the cancellation of the minor-league season in 2020 delayed his official pro debut until 2021.
Just before reporting to camp that season, however, Lora was involved in a car accident in which one of his passengers died. The Rangers decided to keep him in the Dominican Summer League that summer and he struggled, hitting .218 and finishing among the league leaders in strikeouts. He was expected to play stateside in 2022, but it didn’t happen. What we knew then: Lora was placed on the Restricted List in May. What we know now: The reason was a two-year suspension handed down by MLB, which was investigating domestic violence allegations.
Lora was not going to make this list of 72 prospects regardless — I’d had him, in order, 24th, 27th, 41st and 51st in the four times I’d ranked prospects since his arrival and had already dropped him from this list — but now he will be judged on a far more serious level. Getting a baseball career back on track is no longer a focal point.
Following a review of the Nos. 72 through 55 and Nos. 37 through 54 prospects in the Rangers system, we move on to the group that edges into the top 20 – among whom are two players from Lora’s international class.
36. Ian Moller, C, Low-A Down East (age on April 1: 20)
Round 4/2021 (+4)
Spoiler alert: Moller is the highest-rated catcher in my rankings. Only converted infielder Cody Freeman (No. 44) and 27-year-old Matt Whatley (No. 71) — each of whom earned non-roster invites to major-league spring training to help catch 40-plus pitchers in the early stages of camp — are otherwise ranked. Moller was in line to play for LSU until the Rangers drafted him in 2021 and signed him for $700,000, nearly 25 percent above his fourth-round slot value. In a brief 15-game pro debut that summer in the Arizona Complex League, seven of his 11 hits went for extra bases. The Rangers then challenged Moller, who played on the showcase circuit as a high schooler rather than for his Iowa school (where he was a year ahead of Rangers 2022 sixth-rounder Tommy Specht), with a full-season assignment in 2022. He displayed the power profile and bat speed that attracted Rangers scout and former minor-league catcher Dustin Smith and showed a penchant for laying off pitches outside the zone, reaching base at a .366 clip despite hitting only .201. The great-grandson of Negro League ballplayer Hubert Ross Sr., Moller is a risk-reward player who has the tools and intangibles to stay behind the plate and the upside of an impact bat, though he has swing-and-miss tendencies that he’ll need to smooth out.
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35. Maximo Acosta, SS/2B, Low-A Down East (20)
International/2019 (-15)
From the same international class that produced Lora, Acosta has yet to put together the breakout that many have expected since he signed for $1.65 million in July of 2019. Injuries have played a part; his 2021 debut lasted only 17 games in the Arizona Complex League before he had season-ending thoracic outlet syndrome surgery. Assigned to the Carolina League in 2022, he was used solely at shortstop for five weeks before starting to cede opportunities to Cam Cauley and move occasionally across the bag. Acosta’s approach grades better than his raw tools. The 20-year-old has gotten thicker in the lower half since turning pro, though his instincts and aggressiveness on the bases helped him steal 44 bases in 61 tries with Down East. He also showed solid pitch recognition and bat-to-ball skills but so far it has translated to a gap-to-gap profile rather than fence power. Acosta and Cauley could move to High-A Hickory together in 2023 and continue to rotate at shortstop and second base.
34. Chase Lee, RHP, Triple-A Round Rock (24)
Round 6/2021 (+7)
The way the 2022 season started for Lee, a finish in Arlington couldn’t be ruled out. The sidewinder had a sensational 2021 debut out of the Double-A Frisco bullpen, striking out 27 in 17 innings while issuing only three walks. He was even more dominant with the RoughRiders in the early going of 2022, holding opponents scoreless over his first 15 appearances and continuing to strike batters out at a higher rate than he’d done at the University of Alabama. After the Texas League hit .180 off Lee in 2021, he was holding opponents to a .186 clip in 2022 (30 strikeouts and eight walks in 24 innings) when the Rangers promoted him in mid-June to Triple A. “The Viper” then encountered his first adversity as a pro, allowing 11 earned runs in four innings over his first five Round Rock appearances, and talk of a major-league timetable quieted. He then settled into a groove, fanning 34 and walking five unintentionally over his remaining 27 1/3 innings while posting a 2.63 ERA. The aerospace engineering major will join big-league camp on a non-roster invite this month, a remarkable development for a sixth-round pick who signed for $75,000 (in a $312,400 slot) less than two years ago. It’s not just a reward for his success on the farm. The Rangers clearly want Bruce Bochy and his staff to see how Lee’s deceptive slot fares against major-league hitters for a few weeks as a possible prelude to a debut at some point in 2023.
33. Ryan Garcia, RHP, High-A Hickory (25)
Round 2/2019 (+35)
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A First-Team All-American at UCLA in 2019, Garcia was the Rangers’ second-round pick that summer but injured his elbow in his first spring training with the team and had Tommy John surgery in March 2020. A lat strain then postponed what would have been a late-summer return in 2021. The organization finally turned Garcia loose in June and he had an impressive 12-start run with Low-A Down East (.177 opponents’ batting average, .528 OPS, 59 strikeouts and 17 walks in 46 2/3 innings) that culminated with a perfect five-inning effort in which only two balls left the infield. Texas then promoted Garcia to the more age-appropriate South Atlantic League, and he was outstanding in two season-ending appearances for Hickory, dual scoreless efforts in which he allowed two hits over five innings each time out while punching out a combined 15 hitters. The Rangers left Garcia, who lacks overpowering stuff, exposed to the Rule 5 Draft this winter, successfully risking that no team would view him as a candidate to pitch in the majors all year, having thrown only 61 2/3 innings as a pro. Already 25, the right-hander is a good bet to spend 2023 with Double-A Frisco, if not at the outset then for the bulk of the year.
32. Avery Weems, LHP, Double-A Frisco (25)
Trade with White Sox/2020 (+1)
Depending on what role the Rangers envision for Weems, he could be in Frisco along with Garcia to start the 2023 season. The second piece in the Lance Lynn deal with the White Sox that also brought Dane Dunning to Texas, Weems had worked exclusively as a starter for both Chicago and Texas in his first two and a half pro seasons but a brief bullpen reassignment late in 2022 yielded interesting results. Though they were typically long outings in which Weems turned the opposing lineup over, the southpaw was less hittable as a Double-A reliever (.245 batting average) than as a starter (.269 batting average), struck hitters out at a greater rate (11.1 per nine innings versus 10.4 per nine) and was stingier with walks (2.7 per nine innings versus 3.6 per nine). He was also drastically less homer-prone, which had been an issue. In his 17 RoughRiders starts, Weems surrendered a home run once every five innings (similar to his 2021 rate in High A) but he was taken deep only once in 26 2/3 relief innings. With a mid-90s fastball from a low slot and a pair of breaking balls that includes a hard slider that flashes plus, his lack of a dependable changeup might point further to a relief role. His left-right splits have been severe (particularly with his fastball), and a bullpen role would theoretically minimize his relative ineffectiveness against right-handed hitters, even in multi-inning usage, as opponents would be less likely to stack the lineup with righties midway into a game. Weems’ spring training will start with his first non-roster invite to major-league camp.
31. Cam Cauley, SS/2B, Low-A Down East (20)
Round 3/2021 (-3)
Cauley has electric tools, with plus hands and double-plus speed befitting of the All-State wide receiver he was at Barbers Hill High School just outside Houston. But in two pro seasons, the 5’10” infielder has struggled to get going offensively. He’s played 100 games between the Complex League (2021) and High A (2022) and has hit .221 with a .620 OPS and only 24 extra-base hits. He’s been dynamic on the bases, however, getting into scoring position regularly with 48 stolen bases in 54 attempts. Cauley’s infield versatility and potential to add center field to the mix give him an intriguing utility player profile, but the Rangers believe his athleticism and aptitude (not to mention some added strength) could allow him to tap into everyday-player upside. He’d only be a college sophomore had he honored his Texas Tech commitment, and still has three seasons before he’ll need to be added to the 40-man roster, so there is time. Using more of the field offensively will be a focus for him in 2023.
30. Marcos Torres, OF/1B, Dominican Summer League (18)
International/2022 (U/R)
Outfielders Anthony Gutierrez ($1.97 million) and Jose de Jesus ($1.2 million) headlined the Rangers’ 2021-2022 international class, but to date Torres ($247,500) has emerged along with Gutierrez as the prize of the class. He flashed a fluid swing and an advanced feel for the game in his pro debut, hitting .282/.395/.464 in the Dominican Summer League while playing all season at age 17. Among his 51 hits were nine doubles, three triples and six home runs, and he stole 13 bases in 53 games. The Rangers believe Torres, who is physically mature for his age and has already demonstrated a knack for taking cage adjustments into games, could hold up to the challenge of the Arizona Complex League this summer. The Venezuelan played all three outfield spots plus some first base in 2022 but is likely to settle in on an outfield corner in the long term.
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29. Gleider Figuereo, 3B, Low-A Down East (18)
International/2021 (U/R)
From the “I’m Old” department: In my 2003 Bound Edition of the Newberg Report, I gave 20-year-old right-hander Victor Figuereo an honorable mention in the “Rangers Minor League Pitcher of the Year: First-Year Players & Short-Season Clubs” category, on the strength of his 5-2, 1.96 campaign in rookie ball. By 2004, he was out of baseball – and his son Gleider was born. Fast forward to January of 2021: Texas signed the son for $80,000 out of the Dominican Republic, and he had a reasonably productive debut in the Dominican Summer League with a .714 OPS and nearly as many walks as strikeouts. Following that 2021 season, however, he added considerable weight and strength while training with former Rangers pitcher — and Victor’s 2003 minor-league teammate — Edinson Volquez. The Rangers advanced the younger Figuereo to the Complex League for the 2022 season and he broke out in a big way, hitting nine home runs (one short of the league lead) with a .979 OPS, which was fourth highest in the 18-team league. He also tied for the ACL lead in triples and was fourth in RBIs despite playing fewer games than each of those ahead of him. The left-handed-hitting third baseman, who was one of the youngest players in the entire league, got a late-season promotion to Down East and should return this season to that level, where he’ll once again be one of the youngest players on the field.
28. Trevor Hauver, OF, Double-A Frisco (24)
Trade with Yankees/2021 (-7)
Three of the four players that the Yankees gave up for two partial seasons of Joey Gallo (Glenn Otto, Ezequiel Duran and Josh Smith) have made it to the majors with Texas. Hauver is the exception — but he’s also the least experienced, only arriving in pro ball in 2020, which meant he didn’t debut until 2021 since the minor leagues didn’t play his draft year. Following a stellar career at Arizona State in which he posted an OPS over 1.000 in his sophomore and junior seasons, New York drafted him in the third round in 2020, 13 slots after the Rangers chose high school pitcher Tekoah Roby. In three months with the Yankees and the year and a half since with Texas, Hauver has been the epitome of a “three true outcomes” batter, hitting 32 home runs in 202 pro games while striking out 237 times and drawing 177 walks. Despite a career batting average of .247, he has reached base at a .402 clip, an organizational emphasis at the time of the trade and one that the Rangers continue to prioritize. When Hauver connects, he has lift in his swing, and it was on display as he heated up over the final month of the 2022 season with Frisco. He hit three home runs in 15 games down the stretch for the RoughRiders, hitting .282 and posting a 1.090 OPS. While the Yankees played the 24-year-old at second base, the Rangers have almost exclusively worked him in left field, though he played some first base late in the year, including Frisco’s league title run. Hauver should return to Double A to start the season.
27. Danyer Cueva, SS/2B/3B, Low-A Down East (18)
International/2021 (+15)
After a solid pro debut in 2021, Cueva took a major step forward in 2022, posting a .859 OPS in the Arizona Complex League on the strength of a blistering start. The Venezuelan shortstop, who signed for $1,025,000 before the 2021 season, lacks the upside of other infielders in the system but offers a higher floor than some with flashes of bat-to-ball skills and plate discipline as well as solid-average bat speed that generates moderate power from the left side. Cueva got stronger in 2022, particularly in his lower half, and he hit five home runs after going deep just once in the Dominican Summer League the year before. His batting averages have dropped each month, from a .409 in June to a .308 in July and .269 in August before he finished with a 1-for-10 September. Cueva has the tools to stay at shortstop but there is some thought as his body continues to mature that he’ll eventually end up at second base, where he played after joining Down East for the final two weeks of the season. He’ll return to the Wood Ducks in 2023 and will look to sustain his production deeper into the summer.
26. Marc Church, RHP, Double-A Frisco (22)
Round 18/2019 (+20)
The Rangers used their 18th-round pick in 2019 on Church, a high school infielder, viewing him as a pitching project. Signed as a reliever, he sits in the mid-90s and offers one of the system’s best sliders to boot. Just as encouraging is the command that he pairs with his power profile. The Atlanta native has a career rate of nearly six strikeouts for every walk, and he was at his best in that regard in the first half of the 2022 season. Working in various bullpen roles for High-A Hickory — closing some days, working multiple innings others — the righty punched out 57 and walked seven in 34 innings, allowing runs in only five of 23 appearances. (Interestingly, they came in bunches; Church never allowed one run in a Crawdads game.) Pro lineups are hitting .232 off him, and he’ll be in major-league camp on a non-roster invite. The plan after that is less certain — a return to Double-A Frisco’s bullpen, where he struggled in the second half, is likely, but there’s been some thought in the organization that it might be worthwhile to see how Church would fare in a starting role.
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25. Larson Kindreich, LHP, High-A Hickory (23)
Round 8/2021 (+13)
Kindreich lacks Church’s pure stuff but offers a varied assortment that should keep him in a rotation for the foreseeable future. He’s missed plenty of bats, striking out 109 batters in 72 2/3 pro innings, but he struggled with his command in 2022, walking more than six batters per nine innings between Low-A Down East and High-A Hickory. It was an issue in 2021 as well, when Kindreich followed a standout 2020 (96 strikeouts and 10 walks in 66 1/3 innings between Biola University and the Northwoods Collegiate Summer League) with a shakier junior season with the Eagles that included 20 walks in 47 innings. The 6’4” lefty fell to the eighth round as a result — and signed for just $150,000 in a $191,500 slot — but has avoided hard contact with an average fastball and curve offset by a plus changeup. Class-A opponents have hit just .188 against Kindreich, but he’ll need to throw more strikes as he faces more disciplined batters on the way up. He should return to Hickory to start the season.
24. Winston Santos, RHP, Low-A Down East (20)
International/2019 (U/R)
International amateurs who sign for $10,000 or less don’t count against a team’s cap space, which is how the Rangers signed the aforementioned 43 players in 2019-2020 even though Lora, Acosta and four others exhausted their allotted budget. Among the 37 who signed for a maximum of $10,000 was Santos, who has quickly flashed one of the highest ceilings among Rangers pitching prospects while methodically raising his floor. The 20-year-old cuts a deceptive mid-90s fastball — which Baseball America ranks as the best heater in the system — and complements it with a plus changeup and a developing slider that he tunnels well. In two pro seasons across three levels, Santos has held hitters to a .217 batting average and .632 OPS, striking out 144 in 141 1/3 innings while walking only 39. The maturation of his slider will likely be the key to him realizing his upside as a starter.
23. Ricky Vanasco, RHP, Double-A Frisco (24)
Round 15/2017 (-13)
There were clear bullet points of success for Vanasco in 2022. The 2017 draft pick came into the season with 83 1/3 innings pitched as a pro and then logged 92 1/3 last season alone. He continued missing bats, striking out 11.5 hitters per nine innings between High A and Double A, levels he’d never pitched at before. And he rode a hot late-season streak to prompt his promotion, holding South Atlantic League opponents to a .214 batting average while fanning 38 in 27 1/3 innings over his final six Hickory starts. But the 24-year-old, seeing game action for the first time since September 2020 Tommy John surgery, allowed considerably more baserunners at both Hickory and Frisco than he ever had as a pro. It’s not uncommon for command to be the last thing to come back for pitchers returning from the procedure, but Vanasco’s stuff regressed as well. Accustomed to throwing in the mid-90s and touching 99 with his four-seamer, he sat 91-93 early in 2022, had issues locating his curve consistently throughout the year and allowed 14 home runs (having yielded only three coming into the season). The Rangers need not be in a rush — even though Vanasco will be on his second option in 2023, his lengthy inactive stretches should make him eligible for a fourth option in 2025 — but at some point, they might decide to experiment with a late-inning role to see if the righty’s once-electric stuff might tick up in short doses.
22. Blaine Crim, 1B, Triple-A Round Rock (25)
Round 19/2019 (+3)
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It’s certainly not fair to compare Crim to Curtis Terry, but similarities exist. Both were late-round draft picks (Terry in the 13th round, Crim in the 19th) who were limited defensively to first base but hit at every level. Still, the lack of versatility emboldened the Rangers to leave Terry off the 40-man roster in advance of the 2019 and 2020 Rule 5 Drafts and they did the same with Crim this winter. Texas finally brought Terry to the majors a few months before his 25th birthday; Crim has already reached that age but it wouldn’t be out of the question for him to earn a look before he turns 26. Terry has a .861 OPS as a minor leaguer (he was with the Twins in 2022, and heads to the Orioles this year); Crim’s is .887, and in his two full pro seasons, he has 53 home runs and a .294 batting average (not counting an MVP run last winter in the Puerto Rican Winter League, when he hit .406 with a 1.046 OPS in 25 games). His power was relatively slow to show up in 2022 — he had 13 homers through four months with Double-A Frisco before going on a tear late, hitting five in August and six in the first 11 days of September. The Rangers then promoted him to Triple A to finish the season, and that’s almost certainly where he’ll start in 2023 after getting a non-roster invite to major-league camp for the second straight spring.
21. Cody Bradford, LHP, Double-A Frisco (25)
Round 6/2019 (+2)
Vanasco joined Bradford in Frisco at the end of last season. This spring, it will be Bradford who joins Vanasco in Surprise as the big lefty has been given a non-roster invite to major-league camp. A year ago, it looked like Bradford might not need the invite. He’d finished the 2021 season — his first on a pro mound (he was recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery when drafted in 2019) — with a seven-start promotion to Double A. He made the most of the opportunity, striking out 41 and walking four in 34 2/3 innings while allowing only one home run. But any thought that he was headed for a season-ending roster spot in 2022 was put on hold when, in his return to Frisco, he had a 6.26 ERA (.830 OPS, 15 homers allowed) in 19 starts through the end of July. Still, Bradford finished strong with the RoughRiders. Over his final seven starts, he held the Texas League to a .170 batting average and .518 OPS while striking out 48 and walking six in 41 innings. Perhaps because his stuff isn’t eye-popping (low-90s fastball with deception, slider, cutter, advanced changeup), the Rangers decided they could risk leaving him off the 40-man roster and slide him through the Rule 5 Draft – and they were right. Bradford offers more of a high floor than a high ceiling, but his feel for pitching could make him a candidate for spot starts as soon as this summer if he’s in form.
20. Jonathan Ornelas, IF/OF, Double-A Frisco (22)
Round 3/2018 (+27)
Of the Rangers’ first four picks in the 2018 draft, Ornelas might have been the least likely a year ago to play his way into a 40-man roster spot. But when the Rangers made their additions in November, the infielder claimed a spot along with right-handers Owen White and Cole Winn, while fellow righty Mason Englert was left off (and promptly chosen by Detroit in December’s Rule 5 Draft). Ornelas had posted OPS’ in the .700 range in Low A in 2019 and High A in 2021, but he broke out with a tremendous Double-A season in 2022, posting a .785 OPS as Frisco’s primary shortstop. He hit .299 with a career-best 14 homers, and his 157 hits led Rangers minor leaguers as well as the Texas League and tied Joaquin Arias’s RoughRiders franchise record. Ornelas also went 7-for-10 in Frisco’s sweep of Wichita for the league championship, three days after which the Rangers named him their Minor League Defender of the Year. Though he’s a natural shortstop, he’s played more than 300 innings at third base and second base and in the outfield. It’s that versatility that made leaving him off the roster and exposed to the Rule 5 Draft too great a risk for Texas to take. He will probably break camp with Triple-A Round Rock and stands a good chance to make his major-league debut at some point in 2023 as a Hanser Alberto-esque energy player who can help all over the field. Among the things Ornelas will look to do to round out his game is add some lift to his swing to take further advantage of solid exit velocities.
19. Dane Acker, RHP, High-A Hickory (24)
Trade with A’s/2021 (+7)
The Rangers have made a habit of trading for pitchers with little if any pro track record (Grant Anderson, Jose Corniell, Robby Ahlstrom), and Acker could emerge as the shrewdest of the pickups. Texas acquired him from Oakland, along with Jonah Heim and Khris Davis, in the Elvis Andrus trade just before spring training in 2021 when he had yet to throw a professional pitch. He was one of the stars of the backfields in camp that spring, throwing his fastball at a consistent 95-97 mph (touching 99 mph) and flashing a hammer curve as part of a four-pitch mix. Acker then made two intriguing starts for Low-A Down East, striking out 11 in 6 1/3 innings while scattering four hits and one walk. But he came out of the second start with elbow discomfort and eventual Tommy John surgery. The right-hander returned to action in July of 2022 and was effective in five Complex League starts (.156 opponents’ batting average, 14 strikeouts and five walks in 13 innings) before struggling with his command against High-A hitters in four season-ending starts (.308 average, 17 strikeouts and 10 walks in 12 2/3 innings). Hopes remain high for the 23-year-old, whom the Rangers invited along with Bradford, Roby, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker to a January mini-camp in Arlington. Acker has only 32 pro innings under his belt and will likely have his workload carefully monitored in 2023 as he continues to ramp back up from his 15-month shutdown. Still, if he flashes the dominating stuff he displayed on his arrival in 2021, the Rangers might not be able to risk excluding him from the roster this winter, his first to be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft. With a mid-rotation ceiling, Acker could have the type of value that a drafting team would be comfortable stashing in big-league middle relief for a year.
(Top photo of Chase Lee courtesy of Eddie Kelly / ProLook Photos)
