Rangers’ 'Little Rascal' honored with organization's highest minor league award

It's been a heck of a season for infielder Cody Freeman. Before making his big league debut he made a name for himself in the minor leagues and nearing the end of the year, he's getting recognized for it.

Freeman, 24, was announced as the 2025 Texas Rangers' Tom Grieve Player of the Year Award for the best minor leaguer in the organization.

The infielder won the award after his 97 games in the minors, all of which were spent with Triple-A Round Rock, in which he dominated the stat line before his eventual call up to the big leagues.

Freeman's emergence excites Rangers about the future

The Rangers former fourth-round pick in 2019 was drafted out of high school and has spent the last six seasons rising through the ranks of the minors. He began as an 18-year-old with the Arizona League in 2019 and ended up in Triple-A this season.

While Freeman showed steady improvement as time went by, the five-foot-eight infielder had a breakout season by all accounts this year. During his time with Round Rock, Freeman slashed .336/.382/.549 with 19 home runs, 71 RBIs, 129 hits, 75 runs scored and a .931 OPS.

That earned him a promotion to Arlington, making his MLB debut on July 18. While his numbers certainly don't pop off the page, Freeman had adorned himself to the fanbase over the last two months of the season, helping to lead a miraculous push they still hope leads to the postseason.

Part of what has become known as "The Little Rascals", Freeman alongside Alejandro Osuna, Michael Helman and Wyatt Langford have led the charge with the team's big name veterans dealing with season-ending or close to season-ending injuries.

In the month of September, the California native is hitting .271 with two homers and eight runs driven in. Among those is a two-hit game on Sept. 1 in Arizona where he helped Texas beat the D-backs in extra innings thanks a game-tying two-run homer in the third and a game-tying single with two outs in the top of the ninth.

Freeman is the Rangers' 24th ranked prospect, which isn't bad, but he obviously wasn't seen as a can't miss out kind of player. I venture to say heading into next spring that narrative among the organization will shift to "We can't afford to not have him out there."