Texas Rangers May Minor League Update

The Rangers have an off-day on Thursday as they get ready to head out west. Today, I thought we would review some of the top performers in the minor league system through the season's first month. We will start at Triple-A Round Rock and work our way down to Low-A Down East

Triple-A Round Rock

1. Cody Bradford

Bradford is not the first name you think of when it comes to Rangers minor league pitchers, but at this point in the season, he has put up the best numbers through the month of April and his first start in May. Bradford is 5-1 with a 1.07 ERA on the season. Those numbers earned him the Pacific Coast League April pitcher of the month. He has thrown 33 innings and has 30 strikeouts to 12 walks. He is allowing opponents to have a .149 batting average. He is not on the 40 man roster, but he has certainly put himself on the board to possibly see a call-up this season.

2. Justin Foscue

The 2020 first round pick made his Triple-A debut at the start of the season. He got off to a slow start, but has picked it up starting on April 14th. He had a three-hit night including his first home run in that game. Since then he has six multi-hit games and has added two more home runs to his total and 11 RBI's. Overall he has a .269 batting average, with an .855 OPS. He is an infield injury away from getting a callup. His most valuable role may be that of a trade piece to help the Rangers land bullpen help come July.

3. J.P Martinez

In spring training we talked about Cole Ragans being forgotten. Martinez is the overlooked man. Everyone is talking about Evan Carter making his debut at age 20, but Martinez is putting up just as good of numbers at a higher level. Martinez leads Round Rock in batting average, RBI's, and stolen bases. He is filling up the box score on a nightly basis. He has a .350 batting average, a 1.010 OPS, three home runs, and 17 RBI's. He also is showing patience at the plate as he has 20 strikeouts to 18 walks on the season. He is also 27 years old and so the Rangers might want to take a look at him first before giving Evan Carter a shot.

High-A Hickory

7. Kumar Rocker

The Rangers shocked all of the analysts in the 2022 MLB Draft when they took Kumar Rocker with the number three pick. They rested him the rest of the season and then let him start his career in the Arizona Fall League. He pitched fine out in Arizona. He really got his start this spring and he was assigned to High-A Hickory out of camp. Since then he has looked like the top-of-the-rotation pitcher they imagined he would be. He has a 1-1 record and a 3.63 ERA. The ERA was much lower until his last start when he allowed four runs in the fifth inning of his last start. He has 29 strikeouts to four walks on the season. He even won South Atlantic League pitcher of the week award after his first week in Hickory. Right now he just needs to work on mixing up his pitches the second and third times through the order. His slider and fastball generate swings and misses, but he has to find a way to be able to keep hitters guessing deep into games.

8. Max Acosta

Acosta has had a bumpy developmental ride the last two seasons. Prior to 2021 he was looked at as the future shortstop of the Texas Rangers and was one of their top prospects. 2022 he was assigned to his first full season assignment at Down East. It was not a bad season, but it also did not live up to expectations. He did hit, he had a .262 batting average, but hit with very little power. He had four home runs in 107 games. His slugging percentage was at just .341 for the season. The Rangers decided to challenge him this season by moving him up to Hickory. He has certainly responded. In 19 games played, he has a .353 batting average, a .936 OPS, eight stolen bases, two home runs, and he has even walked eight times. At 20 years old he has started to tap into that potential the Rangers scouts saw when they signed him back in 2019.

9. Josh Hatcher

I have to say, Hatcher is not someone that I was regularly following coming into the season. He was a 10th round pick in the 2022 draft out of Kennesaw State University. He is already 24 years old. So he is pretty old for a players in his first full season. He also is in position to move fast due to his age and collegiate experience. He struggled in Hickory at the end of the 2022 season. He has really been one of Hickory's better hitters so far in 2023. In 20 games he has a .319 batting average, has hit three home runs, and driven in 15 runs. He started off his season with hits in the first 12 games of the season and in six of those games he had multiple hits. He has just continued to hit since that streak ended. He now has a three-game hitting streak leading into Thursday night's game. The one thing I see that Hatcher needs to improve upon is cutting down his strikeouts and increasing his walk rate. Right now it is upside down as he has 22 strikeouts to six walks. Improve upon that and a call to Frisco will come soon after.

Low-A Down East

10. Brock Porter

The other half of the experiment in last year's draft was Porter. The Rangers chose Rocker so that they could end up picking Porter in the fourth round and give him a higher signing bonus and have him forego college. It worked. Porter was not taken and the Rangers ended up picking him with their first pick in the fourth round. Porter thus far has been as advertised. He had a bad first start where he could not get out of the first inning. He walked four in that inning alone. Since then he is throwing on average between three to four innings per start. In his last start he went four hitless innings and struck out seven and walked two. He was dominating with his fastball and slider primarily in that game, but also showed off a changeup that was unhittable as well. His potential to be a future ace is clearly there. He has the size at 6'4 and the overpowering stuff to lead the Rangers rotation one day.

11. Anthony Gutierrez

Gutierrez by most analysts is ranked right outside the top 10 of Rangers prospects. Those same services also say that in a year or two Gutierrez might be the Rangers best prospect. At just 18 years of age the Rangers are introducing him to full season ball. He spent 2022 split between the Dominican Summer League and Arizona Complex League. This season the Rangers are pushing him ahead to Low-A Down East. He is one of the youngest players on the team and in the league at 18. To give you an idea of how young he really is, when the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series he was still a month away from being born. Right now he is holding his own at Down East. He is hitting in the middle of the order for the Wood Ducks. He has a .278 batting average, with one home run, 10 RBI's, and six stolen bases. He is showing flashes so far this season. The potential is huge for Gutierrez as long as he can continue to develop and tap into some of that power.

12. Tucker Mitchell

Mitchell may be the last name on this list, but it does not mean he is the worst. In fact he might be the best catching prospect in the minor league system currently. Mitchell was a 14th-round pick in the 2021 MLB draft. He dealt with multiple injuries throughout the 2022 season robbing him of a chance to really show off who he is. He is healthy now in 2023 and the bat is showing up in a big way. In 14 games played, he has a .378 batting average, with a 1.002 OPS, and one home run. He also has no errors in six games played at catcher. If he can stick at catcher the bat will play. He is someone to follow this season and see his progression. The Rangers have catchers at every level ahead of him. Sam Huff at Triple-A, David Garcia at Double-A, Cody Freeman a High-A, and Mitchell and Moller at Low-A. Of that group Mitchell is hitting the best. If he can continue to hit, that will carry him through the minor league system.