This young Rangers' pitcher is putting on sparkling audition ahead of trade deadline

Counting his minor and major league stats in the year 2025, right-hander Cole Winn is still yet to surrender a single earned run this season and that should appeal to teams.

The former first round pick by the Texas Rangers transformed his career recently with the switch to the bullpen after having a tough go of it as a starter. Matter of a fact, if we trace his numbers back to the 2024 season, he's appeared in 28 games in Triple-A and MLB, only allowing six earned runs.

As for his time with Texas this year, the 25-year-old has pitched eight innings since being recalled back on May 20 and has a spotless ERA and six strikeouts. The only mistake on his ledger is that he somehow finds a way to walk at least one batter per outing.

Which all things considered is miles better than what direction his career was headed at the end of last season. In his first taste as a major leaguer, he threw 17 1/3 innings and gave up 15 earned runs, while batters hit .261 against him.

Contending teams should buy on Winn if Rangers are selling

We hear the typical intrigue of names on the potential trading block this summer for Texas: Tyler Mahle, Nathan Eovaldi, Jacob deGrom and Adolis Garcia. But Winn has a sneaky good reason to be on that list.

He's a cheap option that good give a team a sneaky young arm out of the pen. He has a fastball that touches 95 with crazy arm extension and would be one of the best ground ball rates in the league if he had enough innings to qualify.

Winn has thrown six different pitches so far this season: sinker, cutter, four-seam curveball, slider and split finger. He is yet to give up a hit on the curve and slider while the four-seam and cutter have batters only hitting .167 against it.

Obviously Winn doesn't attract a huge return on his lonesome but I imagine he could be a good add-in piece to a bigger trade if Chris Young is looking to sweeten the pot for a desired return. Regardless, Winn is showcasing immense value for Texas and they can capitalize on it in more ways than one.