Texas Rangers Top Prospects Tearing Up High-A Ball

The Texas Rangers and their fans have a watchful eye on Leody Taveras and Anderson Tejeda who are tearing up High-A ball this season.

Two of the Texas Rangers top prospects are lighting up High-A ball in 2019 putting a spotlight on the Down East Wood Ducks. Both Anderson Tejada and Leody Taveras are off to incredibly hot starts at the plate as they continue to work their way up the organizational ladder.

Anderson Tejeda

Tejeda was already well on his way up prospect rankings after a successful 2018 campaign with the High-A Wood Ducks. Tejeda went .259 at the plate last season in 121 games played and established himself as a talent within the organization.

A middle infielder by trade, Tejeda started over 100 games at shortstop for Down East logging over 900 innings and showing off his exceptional arm strength. Defensively he took the biggest step forward in 2018 cementing his ability to continue playing up the middle.

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In 2019, the 20-year old is showing the promise with the bat as well however posting a .288 average and an .823 OPS. He’s showing a bit of pop as well with 5 doubles and 2 home runs in his first 17 hits this season. This is still a small sample size in a very long season, but it seems that Tejeda may have turned a corner at the plate which helps prove that he belongs among the best prospects in the Texas Rangers system.

Leody Taveras

Taveras is likely the name that Rangers fans know better of these two as he was considered the top prospect in the Rangers organization for much of last season. Unfortunately, he dropped off a little bit in 2018 not taking the step forward that many had hoped. The young outfielder hit just .246 for High-A Down East last season struggling to get on base as shown by his .312 on-base percentage.

Defensively, he is a solid center fielder and is continuing to show that he can stick at that position long term. Also 20-years old, Taveras still has plenty of time and room for growth and is showing his improvements already in 2019. So far Taveras has appeared in 24 games for the Wood Ducks and is hitting an eye-catching .309 and has his on-base percentage up to .375 which is a marked improvement.

Still a bit of a free-swinger, Taveras could stand to increase his plate discipline but he’s starting to remind fans and scouts why he was thought to be the top prospect in the organization for the majority of 2018.