Top Mid-Season Texas Rangers Prospects

With the Futures game this past week, I thought we should let you in on the Rangers future. I’m not typically a list guy, so these won’t be in any particular order. For me these are the top prospects of the season so far.

Leonys Martin CF – Martin was a international free-agent the Rangers signed early in the year. In 29 games with Double-A Frisco Martin’s offensive line was .348/.435/.571 and featured a stunning OPS of 1.100. I’ve spoken to people in Frisco who just couldn’t stop talking about him. He’s a quick fielder and an impressive bat. As a result Martin earned a promotion to the Triple-A Round Rock Express, where hopefully I’ll get more chances to see him in person.

Robert Erlin P – Erlin earned a promotion to Frisco after starting the season with Myrtle Beach. With the RoughRiders Robbie is 5-and-0 with an ERA of 3.70 and a WHIP of 1.089. The impressive number for Erlin is his strikeout-to-walk ratio which is currently 8.0. With Frisco he has picked up 48 strikeouts while allowing only 6 walks.

Joseph Wieland P – Joe is in the same category as Erlin, started the season with the Pelicans but earned a mid-season promotion to Frisco. He’s current 1-and-0 and has played in three games. With Myrtle Beach he posted an ERA of 2.10 and a WHIP of 0.957. In High-A he earned 96 strikeouts and only allowed four walks.

Jurickson Profar SS – Profar is in his first year of full-season baseball. He played last year in Spokane (a short season team) and now is a Hickory Crawdad. He’s done pretty well for an 18 year old. He’s currently batting .270/.380/.488 he has 8 home runs, 36 RBIs, and 10 stolen bases on the season. Last season he did not have any triples – so far this year he has 6.

Mike Olt 3B – I included him despite his recent injury; Olt broke his collarbone this year. We don’t expect him to return until towards the end of the season. This season prior to the injury he was batting .286/.395/.508 and had 10 home runs and 34 RBIs. Next season he should make the jump to Frisco.

Other Notables:

The Rangers number one prospect Martin Perez has struggled some this year. He’s currently only 4-2 with a 3.19 era. He does have 82 strikeouts but his strikeout to walk ratio needs to be higher, it’s currently 2.28.

David Perez has thrown in four games for short season Spokane and already has 24 strikeouts. It’s a good sign to see him missing so many bats this early.

Catching Perez with Spokane is Jorge Alfaro. An 18 year old catcher in the Northwest League- through 16 games he’s batting .328/.375/.478 with 2 home runs and 9 RBIs. He should be on your prospect watch list.

As always we will keep you posted on their progress throughout the season!

-Jonathan