‘He’s just a ballplayer.’ Texas Rangers are noticing former Baylor Bear Davis Wendzel
Let’s just get this out of the way, because it’s the one thing people notice right away about Davis Wendzel.
He has long hair and a bushy beard. He looks kind of like a sandy blond Abraham Lincoln going through a rebellious stage.
From a baseball perspective, Wendzel is working with the Justin Turner starter kit.
It’s a good thing for Wendzel that he wasn’t drafted by the New York Yankees.
The Texas Rangers nabbed the Baylor infielder nearly two years ago with the No. 41 overall pick after he shared Big 12 Player of the Year honors with Texas Tech third baseman Josh Jung, who the Rangers took 33 picks earlier.
Those two are together again in their first appearance at big-league spring training, and it appears they could be on the big-league roster together in the near future.
For every time a media member has asked about Jung — who rightfully has received ample praise — a coach, a teammate or an executive has praised Wendzel in return.
“My honest read is I don’t think he’s that far from Jung,” shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa said. “I mean, I see all the Jung praise, but I think Wendzel is just as good all around. He shocked me.”
Kiner-Falefa is getting plenty of looks at Wendzel, who will play shortstop in the minors this season. While the Rangers believe his best position is third base, Wendzel said he has played plenty of shortstop and isn’t learning a new position on the fly.
Manager Chris Woodward is impressed with Wendzel’s athletic ability, and can’t help but compare him to Turner. Woodward was the infield coach and third-base coach with the Los Angeles Dodgers before coming to the Rangers and knows Turner well.
Aside from the similarities in appearance and ability to play third base, Wendzel also worked in the offseason with the hitting coach who helped Turner figure things out.
Wendzel said he spent two months in California with Doug Latta, who also revitalized Hunter Pence’s career in 2019 with the Rangers.
Pence said the theory behind his revamped swing as “Short to, long through.” Wendzel called Latta’s system “the simplest ways to get to a ball.”
“I was preparing my swing not to get through the minor leagues or not to be good right now, but to be good for a long time and be able to face big-league pitching,” Wendzel said, “and have an adjustability to off-speed pitches and be able to stay through the ball better and hit the ball in the air with some authority.”
The Rangers believed in the offseason that Wendzel, who spent a month last season at the alternate site and participated in the instructional league, has 20-homer potential and will rack up a lot of doubles.
That could change after working with Latta. Wendzel now understands that it’s not about how hard a hitter swings, but his ability to hit the a fastball at roughly the same speed it comes in.
“When you’re facing guys that throw 95 to 100 mph, you really don’t have to provide any power,” he said. “If you just hit it at the exact speed they’re throwing, it’s going to go far.”
Like other prospects in camp, Wendzel has played mostly in a backup role so far in Cactus League games. He’s likely to get more at-bats this weekend as the Rangers play B games three straight days.
While this is Wendzel’s first camp, Woodward doesn’t see a young player who is overwhelmed by the moment.
“The biggest thing for me at short is [if] can he play that position at a high level,” Woodward said. “But I think just the ballplayer, that’s the thing that really stands out for me. He’s just a ballplayer. He has a natural confidence about him when he walks around. He’s not arrogant, he’s not cocky, but he has this confidence. And you talk to him, he can articulate what he’s doing and how he’s doing it.”
As the Rangers step on the gas with their prospects after a lost minor-league season, Wendzel should open at Double A Frisco. The Rangers haven’t determined if they will ask their advanced prospects to stay in Arizona for a second spring training or bring them to Texas to be in the alternate camp.
Wendzel rates as an advanced prospect, especially after opening eyes so far this spring, and is part of the next wave of young players expected to carry the Rangers out of a rebuild and back into postseason contention.
“There’s a lot of opportunity here,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of good young players that are in the minor leagues and also some that are already up there in the major leagues. I don’t think people understand how deep we are in our young depth.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 4:06 PM.
