Texas Rangers prospect Jonathan Ornelas seeing his stock rise rapidly in 2022

Few prospects in the Texas Rangers‘ farm system have seen their stock rise as rapidly as Jonathan Ornelas has in 2022.

Ornelas, 23, is having a breakout season in Double-A Frisco, triple-slashing .307/.357/.805 with 13 home runs in 420 at-bats. And his recent success has many who follow the organization high on his potential.

Jonathan Ornelas is raising his stock among Texas Rangers prospects in 2022

Jonathan Ornelas was part of the Texas Rangers’ 2018 draft class, which looks loaded in retrospect with highly-touted pitching prospects Cole Winn and Owen White also selected that year. Ornelas was the team’s third-rounder, while Winn and White were first and second, respectively.

Pretty, pretty good as Larry David might say.

Despite his success with the RoughRiders this season, Ornelas still ranks as the No. 29 prospect in the Texas Rangers’ system in 2022 per MLB Pipeline. Additionally, FanGraphs spots him a 40 FV, which also is not a glowing review of his potential, but one would anticipate that to change after the season he’s been having.

The 23-year-old’s best tools are his running and throwing arm, but he’s shown some power in his bat with 13 home runs this season. Ornelas’ skillset has been compared to that of Javier Baez, though of course we hope the former can make more consistent contact with the bat than the latter has during his career.

Ornelas is also versatile, demonstrating an ability to play both shortstop and third base in the minor leagues. That will only serve him well as he continues his trek towards the big leagues, because the Rangers are fully stocked on middle infielders both at the big league level and throughout the organization. That versatility should hopefully help Ornelas stand out from the crowd.

Jonathan Ornelas is just the latest in a group of talented players moving through Texas’ stacked farm system worth keeping an eye on, especially as he could be close to seeing big league action at this rate.