Rangers’ farm should be gaining steam after 2018 trades, but one publication disagrees
The fine people at Baseball America have revealed their annual rankings of the best farm systems in the game, and the Texas Rangers, after a bevy of trades designed to restock the prospect pool, are ranked worse than they were before their rebuild began.
Yikes.
The Rangers, who ranked No. 22 last year, are the lowest-ranked team in the American League West at No. 25 and the only of the five clubs not in the top 20. The Houston Astros have the highest-rated AL West system at No. 5.
Here’s what BA had to say about the Rangers:
“The Rangers have a trio of promising young center fielders and a stockpile of pitching prospects at the lower levels from recent drafts, led by top prospect Hans Crouse and 2018 first-rounder Cole Winn. They don’t have any of the game’s elite prospects, however, and they lack pure hitters, with a position player group on the thin side with considerable risk attached to even their best ones.”
Crouse is the lone Rangers prospect in the BA Top 100, sitting at No. 73. The three center fielders – Leody Taveras, Julio Pablo Martinez and Bubba Thompson – are toolsy players with high upside.
The Rangers have fared better in other publications’ Top 100 rankings, though they still lack a Top 25 prospect. Taveras and Thompson check in at 47 and 48 in the Baseball Prospectus Top 101.
General manager Jon Daniels said last month that the Rangers should climb in industry rankings once their top prospects start to climb to the upper levels in the minors.
“When we talk internally, I think we’re going to be perceived in the industry a year from now as taking a really big jump, for a variety of reasons,” he said. “One of the biggest ones is so much of our best talent, both in quality and quantity, is at the lower levels.
“Our Down East outfield might be one of the best outfields in the minor leagues, and when all or some of them are sitting at Frisco next year or maybe even higher, that will resonate when they’ve proven themselves at higher levels.”
This story was originally published February 14, 2019 at 12:07 PM.
