Texas Rangers Prospects: Future is both near and far for Winn and Ragans

Texas Rangers fans got to travel in time for a few brief moments on Sunday afternoon, as pitching prospects Cole Winn and Cole Ragans each took the mound for an inning at the 2021 All-Star Futures Game in Colorado.

Winn was the starter for the AL squad, with Ragans following him in the third inning. Tampa Bay Rays prospect Shane Baz sandwiching the two Rangers.

Overall? The results were a mixed bag for the Texas prospects, as both were done for the game by the third inning.

As Evan Grant correctly tweeted, no Ranger should be taking home any hardware from this game, but it was nonetheless encouraging that both prospects got some national exposure. The Texas Rangers were the only AL team that had multiple pitchers representing them in the game, which is a feat in and of itself.

Texas Rangers’ pitching prospects Cole Winn and Cole Ragans pitched in the 2021 All-Star Futures Game

Winn’s outing was 19 pitches and included a home run and a strikeout, as well as a few walks. Not bad, but not great either.

Ragans’ day was a little worse: he recorded just one out while allowing two runs on three hits. His one out was a strikeout, though.

More from Nolan Writin'

• Early 2023 MLB mock draft has Texas Rangers selecting an Ohtani-lite
• 3 Texas Rangers outfield trade targets not named Bryan Reynolds
• Did Jacob deGrom really mean what he said at his Texas Rangers press conference?
• Where do Texas Rangers prospects Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker stand after the DeGrom signing?
• Martin Perez accepting the qualifying offer looking like solid deal for the Rangers

Overall, not a banner day for either pitcher, but that’s beside the point if you ask me.

Sure, it always looks better when your young gun performs well in this game, but it’s a meaningless game ultimately. The fact is, it’s more important that MLB thinks highly enough of an organization’s talent to select them for this game in the first place.

And that’s how Texas Rangers fans should feel in regards to Cole Winn and Cole Ragans. There’s a lot of outstanding young pitchers in this game, and yet these two Rangers were selected from the bunch. That says a lot on its own.

Winn and Ragans are tearing up their own leagues in the minors, with Ragans doing notable enough work at A Hickory that he’ll be reportedly receiving a promotion to AA Frisco to join Winn on a prospect-rich RoughRiders squad.

Any time you get to see Texas Rangers prospects on the national stage, that’s always a cause for optimism. And with the news of Ragans’ promotion, that only makes things even more exciting, as the future continues to draw near even as it’s still a little ways away.