Always tall, Rangers prospect Guzman now packing on pounds

Joey Gallo is a big man, at 6-foot-5 and 255 pounds, but even he is amazed by the size of prospect Ronald Guzman.

Guzman has been tall since the day he was signed in 2011, but he was never able to keep weight. But in his first big-league camp with the Texas Rangers, Guzman is pushing Gallo on the scale and has him by a tick in height.

“I call him Ogre or Shrek,” Gallo said.

At 6-foot-6 and now 255 pounds, Guzman is finding that the extra pounds, the by-product a new off-season program that was more focused on his diet, have aided his hitting. He added 25 pounds during the off-season by eating six small, healthy meals per day, and combined that with work in the gym.

He didn’t play much in the off-season and wasn’t required to go to the fall instructional league or winter instructs in the Dominican Republic. The weight he put on hasn’t melted away, and the ball is going farther when he hits it.

“I can feel it in my swing,” said Guzman, a first baseman. “Sometimes I hit the ball off-balance and it carries more.”

But just because he’s bigger doesn’t mean he’s going to start cranking out 30-homer seasons. He has topped 10 homers only once in the minors, connecting for 16 last season, and is more focused on shortening his swing and making it more consistent.

“I feel like home runs are more good swings than power,” he said. “I haven’t hit that many home runs because I miss my pitches. The pitches I’m supposed to hit out, I don’t get there. I feel the power is there, it’s just my swing.”

Guzman is working on shorter, quicker stroke to help him get to those pitches. He felt that he made headway last season but wants to have the same swing all season.

“I’m trying to hit the ball harder, not farther,” he said.

This story was originally published February 25, 2017 at 11:26 AM with the headline "Always tall, Rangers prospect Guzman now packing on pounds."