Bubba thump: Rangers prospect makes most of time in big-league spring game with homer
Bubba Thompson won’t be in the major leagues this season, and there’s a pretty good chance he won’t be making his big-league debut in 2020 in the first season of Globe Life Field.
He has yet to play above Low A, but made a significant jump up the prospect ladder last season to earn opportunities like the one he received again Monday afternoon at Surprise Stadium.
And he made the most of it as the Texas Rangers tied the Colorado Rockies, 4-4.
Thompson launched a two-run homer to straightaway center field, scoring fellow prospect Leody Taveras, and showed why the Rangers selected the athletic, toolsy outfielder in the first round of the 2017 draft.
Thompson, ranked as the Rangers’ No. 9 prospect by Baseball America but No. 4 by the Star-Telegram, has power and speed, and his skills are becoming more polished as he concentrates only on baseball after splitting his time with football in high school in Mobile, Ala.
All the work the past two seasons has shown in his four Cactus League appearances as a just-in-case player for the Rangers.
“I’ve been in four of them now, just trying to get some nerves out,” Thompson said. “The atmosphere is wonderful. It’s definitely different than playing on the back fields in the minor leagues. But it’s always good to get out here and have some fun with the older guys.”
The game was tied 2-2 in the seventh when Thompson took the Rockies’ No. 3 prospect, Peter Lambert, deep after Taveras had kept the inning alive by beating out a two-out infield single. They both batted in the ninth, but Taveras bounced out and Thompson struck out to end the game.
It didn’t sit well with him.
“I’m kind of excited he’s mad,” manager Chris Woodward said. “He wasn’t too happy about that, and he hit a homer earlier in the game.”
The homer, though, was an indication of the work Thompson said he did in the off-season. He wants to not be as pull-happy, and the bomb to center field definitely wasn’t pulled.
Thompson, 20, is also working on his defense. He, Taveras and another top prospect, Julio Pablo Martinez, are all center fielders, and they might have to move around to find playing time.
Baseball America ranks Taveras, 20, as the Rangers top defensive outfielder in the minors.
As is always the case with prospects, even the elite ones, time will tell if they make it to the big leagues. Thompson, though, believes he is moving in the right direction.
“Every time I put on my shoes I try to work hard and reach the goals that I have for myself,” he said. “I’m starting to come along. I’m starting to show what I have worked on, so I’m just trying every day to work hard and let everything play out.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2019 at 5:54 PM.
