Texas Rangers Top 45 Prospects

Walcott has been such an obvious tool shed since he signed in 2023 that his various feats of strength initially carried his legend more than his in-game results. Slim and high-waisted with otherworldly bat speed, the 19-year-old Bahamian is still projectable while already producing what would be well-above-average major league exit velocities (106.8 mph 90th-percentile EV) throughout his pro career. But one day you wake up and he’s already managed to become a well above-average Texas League hitter, running a strikeout rate under 25% for the first time since coming stateside.

So many of the warts from previous write-ups are still present here. Walcott has more than enough juice to leave the park in any direction, but his power is still overwhelmingly pull-oriented because he tends to need to catch the ball out in front to lift it. He spins on his backfoot with such cyclonic force that a 46.7% pull rate is an all-time low for Walcott, and he still swings inside a host of soft stuff low and away, even though he’s actually dragged his chase rate down to the big league average. Other than a more conscious effort to cut down his two-strike operation, Walcott is steaming toward a career-high in homers against older competition without a significant swing alteration.

The precocious nature of Walcott’s offensive success and the dizzying tools that promise even more fuel a hazier defensive projection. At 6-foot-4, he was already a risk to simply grow out of shortstop and has accordingly struggled keeping his glove level with low bouncers. The Rangers have been sprinkling in third base work for Walcott, which both hasn’t eased his battle to maintain a fielding percentage north of .900 and has made it clear that he has the hose to make highlight reel throws from anywhere on the diamond. With his athleticism, cannon arm, and offensive profile, that could feasibly still be true in right field if his glove can’t stick on the dirt. Since he’s already tracking as a Fernando Tatis Jr. analogue, why not take it all the way?

In part because of the modern media climate and our collective fixation with The Next Big Thing, Rocker’s baseball odyssey has been perhaps the most visible, dramatic and prolonged roller coaster ride any prospect has ever been subject to. He looked like a first rounder for much of his high school career, but his stuff dipped as the 2018 draft approached while his asking price did not, so teams backed away and Rocker went to Vanderbilt. After some rocky starts early in his freshman year, something clicked for the right-hander and he was utterly dominant during the second half, culminating in a 19-strikeout no-hitter in a postseason game against Duke. That outing, and Vanderbilt’s run to a national title, made Rocker a household name even among casual baseball fans. The pandemic squashed his sophomore season, then Rocker emerged with a noticeably higher release point as a junior. He was fantastic early on, but his fastball lost two ticks as the spring progressed.

Despite his excellent career performance — 236.2 IP, 321 K, 68 BB, 2.89 ERA — volatility was an inextricable aspect of Rocker’s 2021 draft profile, and he fell to the Mets at 10th overall. New York was scared enough of his post-draft physical to squash his deal, which meant Rocker had to wait another year to enter pro ball. He pitched in the independent Frontier League in 2022 and his velocity was back, but again his arm slot had totally changed; this time, it was much lower than when he finished up at Vanderbilt. The Rangers made him a top five pick and sent Rocker to the 2022 Arizona Fall League, where he was scattering 95-97 mph fastballs and had his trademark plus-plus slider. Then Rocker’s elbow blew out in May of 2023 and he had Tommy John, shelving him until July 2024. Upon his return, Rocker was touching 99-100 right out of the gate and had again changed his release, this time to a low-three-quarters slot but a vertical hand position. Over a span of two months, the Rangers gradually stretched him out to the point where he was working five innings, and he made his much deserved big league debut in mid-September. He broke camp with the big league club in 2025 and made five (mostly short) starts before he was put on the IL with a shoulder impingement, returning a couple days prior to this update.

Rocker’s fastball still lacks great shape, but he lives off of angle and velocity to beat hitters at the letters, and he has an explicit sinker version with more tailing action. Speaking of explicit, Rocker’s slider is still X-rated. It sat its usual 84-87 mph last year and generated misses at a 65% clip (the average for big league sliders is 34%), in part because Rocker’s command of it is great. He seems to have re-worked it somewhat coming out of his most recent shoulder issue, and now it’s even harder than before, sitting in the low 90s. It’s an elite offering. Rocker has good feel for locating his 90 mph changeup, and while that pitch isn’t especially nasty, he’s barely been healthy enough to work on it and it might blossom late. He also has a show-me mid-70s curveball.

As deliriously happy as we all should be that Rocker has managed to persevere through all of these injuries while being in a white-hot spotlight, his injury history has to factor into the way he’s graded here. It’s great that he was bumping 100 mph last year, but he did so across just under 50 total innings and it’s perhaps foolish to assume that would be the case across 140 frames. He looks like a mid-rotation stalwart who has injury-driven relief risk.

Leiter graduates from rookie status toward the back of the 50 FV tier. He entered 2025 a whisper away from graduation and broke camp as part of the Rangers rotation. He’s thrown an acceptable rate of strikes for a starter but pretty clearly still has below-average control. Like a lot of the relief-risk prospects toward the back of the 50 FV tier, Leiter has a monster fastball with big velo and bat-missing traits in its angle and ride. He’s touching 101 as a starter; this is an elite fastball playing down a shade due to Leiter’s buckshot control. Leiter is an explosive down-the-mound athlete with a powerful arm action, but he lacks touch-and-feel command. Based on the nature and quality of his delivery, Leiter looks capable of sustaining his 97-ish mph fastball velocity throughout whole seasons even though he’s yet to actually prove he can. His single-season career high in innings is only 85, a mark he’ll likely blow through in 2025.

While his fastball can thrive even when it isn’t located, that isn’t true of Leiter’s secondary stuff. His upper-80s slider has above-average length for a pitch that hard, but it lacks depth and often plays more like a cutter, garnering strikes and weaker contact. It’s generating a below-average rate of miss so far in 2025. His 88-92 mph changeup has variable finish and direction, relying on Leiter’s arm speed to trick hitters more than his ability to execute. Leiter is in the same spot MacKenzie Gore was a couple of years ago, a plus athlete with a big fastball but below average feel and raw secondary stuff. He’ll probably always be fairly walk-prone, if only due to his power-pitcher’s style, but he’ll be able to pitch off his fastball and tinker with the other stuff over the long haul as a good no. 4 starter.

A very famous prospect since his high school underclass days, Rosario’s mid-to-upper-90s fastball used to miss frustratingly few bats because of its shape. He ran an ERA over 7.00 during both his sophomore and junior years in Coral Gables, sitting 95-96 and flashing a plus slider and splitter. The Rangers quickly overhauled Rosario’s delivery, most notably his arm slot, which is now much more vertical. It has totally changed the way Rosario’s fastball plays without sacrificing his arm strength or the quality of either secondary pitch, and it also improved his command. In a 2024 split evenly between Low- and High-A, he posted a 36.9% K%, a 3.7%(!) BB%, and a 2.24 ERA across 88.1 innings.

This is a “I’ll have what she’s having” situation. There are many people in baseball who are jealous of the Rangers for this one, and others who think Rosario should be furious with the staff at Miami for failing to help him improve in college, as it probably cost him a lot of money (Andrew Walters, too). Rosario’s line to the plate is much more direct and comfortable looking now than when he was in college. His mid-90s fastballs (Rosario mixes four- and two-seamers) have a flat enough angle to beat hitters above the zone even though they lack great ride. His breaking ball has morphed into a nasty two-plane slider that looks more like a curve when Rosario lands it in the zone, and his splitter (which sits about 90 mph) garnered an elite whiff rate in 2024. In less than a year, Rosario has gone from a frustrating Day Two prospect to a potential mid-rotation starter with three plus pitches. He entered 2025 looking like a candidate to be the best pitching prospect in baseball a year from now if he could sustain this performance across another 30 or innings while facing upper-level sticks, but instead Rosario blew out during spring training and needed season-ending elbow surgery.

Castillo is a projectable shortstop with good feel to hit for a player who is so obviously lacking strength right now. He parlayed a cartoonish 2024 DSL line into a late-season promotion to the Surprise complex. The quality of Castillo’s contact is improving as his 6-foot-3 frame fills out, and he continues to show fairly advanced feel to hit for a player his size and age. He’s especially adept at getting on top of high fastballs. He’s going to have a potent offensive skill set if he can continue to get stronger and shorten up a tad.

On defense, Castillo is getting reps at shortstop and third base. He’s a poised defender with the actions for short. His first step is a little slow, but that might come as he gets stronger and more explosive. Castillo has a very exciting foundation and is a potential everyday shortstop who should be considered an active upside volcano for the next 12 months or so. Were he in the 2025 draft, he’d be a mid-first round pick.

Three years removed from being a Day Three JUCO flier, pro hitters still can’t make heads or tails of Drake’s fastball. The massive (6-foot-5, 220 pound) lefty uncorks it from a low-three-quarters slot that lends it a flat approach angle, and what little length his arm action has is hidden behind his back until his elbow is cocked. Touching 95 mph with increasing frequency, and with slightly less run than last year, Drake’s heater is driving a 36.4% strikeout rate over his first nine outings of the year in Frisco. It’s deadly when it’s at the letters and vulnerable belt-high or below, with Drake’s heat maps showing that that’s well understood by hitters. He’s dealt with double-digit walk rates at Double-A, though most of his fastball misses seem borne of the understanding that it’s never an awful idea for him to run it up at the letters.

Fastball playability is often a wizard key for sticking as a starter, and that’s evident in the solid results Drake’s secondaries generate, even if they don’t stand out visually. Drake has clearly been hard at work developing a viable changeup, which he uses almost exclusively against righties; it has 10 mph of velocity separation from his heater to offset its unremarkable movement. His low-80s curveball has enough two-plane break that it’s still Drake’s most reliable breaking ball, and while his slider is a necessary bridge offering, his command of it is currently lacking. Because Drake works up in the zone, it’s also worth remembering that his mistakes will end up in the seats. Drake is almost 25 and the relentless chug of improvement that’s marked his pro journey could level off soon, but this already looks like enough.

Moore was one of the top unsigned players from the 2022 high school class and was one of the more complete hitters in the 2024 draft as an age-eligible sophomore. A doubles machine who became a much more patient hitter in his second college season, Moore’s chase rate dropped from 30% in 2023 to 22% as a sophomore. His strikeout rate dropped, too, but poor BABIP luck sunk his batting average all the way to .255, which is really underwhelming for a college hitting prospect. That didn’t jibe with his underlying metrics, nor the visual assessment of his feel to hit. Moore had a 91% in-zone contact rate on tracked pitches in 2024, one of the best marks in the draft.

Moore’s swing starts with a pronounced open stance before he slowly closes off and then unloads on the baseball with his thunderous uppercut stroke. His lower body stays narrow throughout his swing, which is handsy and can trigger late. He has the power to clear the everyday offensive bar at catcher even though he is likely to swing underneath his fair share of elevated fastballs. It will be important for him to improve on defense, though. He left high school with questions about his long-term ability to catch and didn’t progress as hoped at Stanford, though of course he had just two years there rather than three. At draft time, he was below average across all facets of defense, but not so bad that he projected to move off the position in pro ball. Moore is especially clumsy when handling his exchange on throws to the bag, which is either slow or fumbled. He is a below-average receiver and ball-blocker, but his size is typical of a primary big league catcher, and Moore is fairly athletic and agile. He broke a finger when he was hit with a foul tip just a few games into the 2025 season and he’s been on the IL ever since. Moore has the ceiling of a bat-first primary catcher and a realistic floor as a corner platoon bat.

What a pro debut so far for Fitz-Gerald, who has an OPS well over 1.000 in the ACL. The switch-hitting Floridian high schooler (not to be confused with Devin Fitzgerald, Larry Fitzgerald’s son) was signed away from a North Carolina State commit for $900,000 last year.

He has above-average bat speed and swings with dangerous loft from both sides of the plate. He’s only about 5-foot-10 but is very physical and muscular throughout his frame. His raw power is approaching the big league average already and projects above at peak. Fitz-Gerald’s contact performance on the high school showcase circuit was pretty good (77% contact%, 83% in-zone), but not as great as his initial pro sample (82%, 89%,respectively). Both were generated across just shy of 100 plate appearances. It’s the difference between being an average hitter and a plus hitter, so which is real?

Because of the nature of his swing, Fitz-Gerald will likely be vulnerable to elevated pitches as he climbs. He has some feel for getting his hands to those spots, but he’s not facing anything close to big league velocity right now; he might be thriving because he’s a compact, short-levered guy rather than because of actual feel to hit. There’s some volatility there, but Fitz-Gerald definitely looks more like a late first round talent than a late third rounder (where a $900,000 bonus is the slot amount). Switch-hitters with this kind of pop from both sides of the plate don’t exactly grow on trees, not even in Florida.

FItz-Gerald has played a pretty even mix of second base, third base, and shortstop, and in Eric’s looks has been best at third. His range and arm are terrific, and he looks more agile and athletic now than he did as a high schooler. This is a potential switch-hitting regular at second or third who shares a lot of similarities with Jed Lowrie.

Santos has plus command of a riding fastball that averaged 96 mph in 2024 but was more 93-96 in his two 2025 outings before he was shut down with a stress reaction in his back. He had an offseason argument to be on the Top 100 because of his arm strength, command, and durability (Santos had thrown about 100 innings each of the last three years), but the quality of his secondary stuff (or lack thereof) kept him in this FV tier.

Santos is short but built sturdily, and he’s a plus athlete who has held plus velo deep into games and seasons throughout his whole career. His command can elevate how his slider and changeup play, especially his 84-87 mph slider, but too many of those pitches are vulnerable to damage when they aren’t dotted. This is the profile of a pitcher who is quite valuable during the regular season because of his ability to eat efficient innings, but he’s not going to overpower lineups start after start. In a contender’s rotation, he’s more toward the back than entrenched in the middle, and he might downshift into a long relief role come playoff time. On the 40-man roster for the first time, it’s possible a version of that happens this season.

Still a month shy of his 22nd birthday, Bratt is filleting Double-A hitters with picturesque command. He dots every part of the upper third of the strike zone with his low-90s four-seamer and pitches off it with a surfeit of sufficient secondaries. He repeats a balletic delivery that sees him tuck his front knee into his chest before establishing a strong front side with each pitch. And as the old saying goes, anytime your strikeout-to-walk ratio starts with an eight, you’re doing at least a few things right.

Bratt has tickled 94 mph, but by and large, he has yet to see profile-shifting velocity growth. Like everything in his arsenal right now, his slider is performing wonderfully thanks to his precise command. But it’s more accurate to say that he can manipulate the baseball to produce a variety of shapes than it is to say that he has a standout plus offering. If he moves into the 93-94 mph band with consistency, or if there’s a changeup upgrade, it could bump him up from the safe, backend starter trajectory he’s been on for a while now. If not, well, he’s a really safe backend starter prospect.

Davalillo got serious offseason Top 100 consideration coming off his breakout 2024. He was a college-aged righty who worked 110.1 innings, reached High-A, and sustained above-average stuff the entire year. He was working with mid-90s velo early during 2025 spring training but that has backed into more of an average range as he’s gotten into rhythm at High-A Hub City.

Davalillo has feel for locating four pitches and is especially precise with his two breaking balls — a big curveball and a sweeper — both of which are really good. So loose is his arm action that on layback it looks like his hand and the baseball are touching his right shoulder. It’s deceptive and allows him to snap over the top of his two breakers. The direction on the finish of his splitter will vary, and some of them look like sliders, but Davalillo tends to locate it below the zone and he’s great at killing spin; this pitch averages just over 1,000 rpm. This is a fairly complete pitching prospect, really only dinged for the tailing shape on his fastball and his slightly small frame. He looks like a virtual lock to be added to Texas’ 40-man after the season (especially is he’s promoted to Frisco mid-year and keeps pitching well) and looks like a soon-to-be no. 4/5 starter.

Dreiling was a physical draft-eligible sophomore who slashed .328/.452/.689 at Tennessee and hit 30 career homers, 23 of them in 2024. Eric was relatively skeptical about Drieling before the draft, citing concerns with his swing and inability to time fastballs, and he was ranked nearly a full round lower than where he was drafted (65th overall, bonus just shy of $1.3 million).

The Rangers have totally overhauled Dreiling’s swing. His angle of attack has changed — his bat is pointed more vertically when his hands load — and he’s been given a bigger leg kick. Dreiling has been able to alter the posture of the rest of his body throughout his cut, and he’s making a nearly plus-plus rate of contact at High-A in 2025, but there are still some issues here. Dreiling remains unable to turn on fastballs, and though he hits the ball hard, he’s been unable to produce in-game power; he’s slugging under .400 as of list publication. He needs to get to power in games because while he’s getting plenty of center field reps, Dreiling’s feel for defense makes him more of a left field fit. There’s still work to be done here and Dreiling remains a fairly volatile, high-risk prospect, but he definitely looks better than he did in college, and the changes he has made help us understand both Dreiling’s ability to make adjustments and Texas’ ability to install them.

Hagaman was ranked 44th on the 2024 Draft Board because of his upside, but he fell to the fourth round because he had the internal brace-style elbow surgery a couple of months before the draft. He’s a big-framed, high-waisted, loose-armed righty who made his pro debut a few nights prior to list publication. Hagaman’s velocity is intact, as he sat 93-96 with rising action and flashed a plus slider in the 87-89 mph range.

This is an impressive, low-to-the-ground athlete for his size; he has a deep gather into his rear leg, a drop-and-drive stride down the mound, and big extension out front. At West Virginia, Hagaman was up to 98, with a plus-flashing slider in the 86-88 mph range and a plus-flashing changeup in the 85-86 mph range. He was in the bullpen during his two-year college career and now has lost reps due to injury. We don’t know how his velocity will trend once he’s asked to work multiple innings for months at a time, but Hagaman is a potential hidden gem who sure looks (from a size and athleticism standpoint) like he can be developed as a starter. He’s older than Caden Scarborough but has similar upside for the same reasons Scarborough does, as well as a better looking delivery.

Scarborough was one of the more projectable high school pitchers in the 2023 draft at a gangly 6-foot-5, and was signed away from a Dallas Baptist for $515,000. He struggled badly with walks during his very limited 2024 pro debut, but he’s doing better in this regard so far at Low-A Hickory, both visually and on paper. Scarborough’s command of his fastball is particularly impressive, and is a necessary component of his success as a starter. When he’s locating to the upper arm-side quadrant, his fastball has pretty nasty rise/run life; in the rest of the zone, Scarborough’s heater is pretty hittable. He’s successfully peppered that optimal area of the zone throughout the first two months of the 2025 season. His breaking ball is an 80-84 mph sweeper with plus horizontal action. His command of the pitch is not as crisp, though it’s a very nasty in-zone weapon against righties, who Scarborough’s sweeper often makes flinch and freeze.

Scarborough is limber and whippy for an athlete his size, but his delivery does have a fair bit of violence to it. At times he looks flat-footed and his arm stroke is late. He has a better shot to start than some of the older guys with big stuff in the Rangers system, but he isn’t totally out of the relief risk woods, though based on his arm speed, we expect changeup growth to occur here. This is an arrow up prospect in a big way compared to when he signed as a dev project, one with mid-rotation upside if things continue on this trajectory.

Signed out of his Texas Tech commitment for a cool $1 million in 2021, Cauley is nearing 1,500 career pro plate appearances with a sub-.240 batting average, which is to say that his hit tool issues could prove disqualifying at any point. He’ll play this whole season at age 22, and has cut down his chase while threatening to get his strikeout rate on the right side of 27% for the first time ever. Cauley has impressive all-fields juice for a player his size, and the seeds of average power production are present. But the most noticeable byproduct of a swing geared for launch and his more vertical bat angle this year is that he swings under and inside pitches up and away from him in a way that’s being exploited in Double-A, portending even more acute issues in the majors.

But in the right light, or depending on where he falls on the Leury García–Ceddanne Rafaela continuum, Cauley looks like he could play in the majors for several years based largely on the strength of his speed, athleticism, and defensive versatility. A 70-runner who is a consistent menace on the basepaths, Cauley has added center field to his toolkit alongside regularly manning both up-the-middle spots on the dirt. He utilizes his comfort making plays on the run to hide a middling throwing arm, and his outfield routes are underbaked at this point. But if the guiding light of FanGraphs’ prospect coverage is to bet on the freaks, this one seems like he’ll find a way to be a manager’s multi-tool.

The Rangers protected the very hard-throwing Teodo from the Rule 5 Draft this winter, though the move also corresponded with an end to his starting rotation dreams. But while a move to the ‘pen usually comes with the trade-off of being on a fast-track to the majors — especially for righties with triple-digit heat and plus sliders — Teodo has looked like a diminished version of himself for most of 2025. Extreme bouts of wildness (a 20% walk rate at Round Rock) preceded his three-week IL stint for shoulder fatigue in late April, and he hasn’t been any better upon his return. His velocity has also been down a tick. Granted, Teodo still sits 96 mph when he’s down a tick, but his running sinker wasn’t a bat-misser at its top velocity, and his fledgling changeup doesn’t have enough movement separation to work at 93 mph. His slider is still short and nasty, and there are still the seeds of an impact reliever here, but it’s hard to talk about a guy being a future closer when his Triple-A ERA is over 10.00.

A 2019 18th-rounder out of North Atlanta High School, Church didn’t play an affiliated game until 2021 but quickly ascended to Triple-A as a pure reliever. He worked fewer than 30 innings in 2024 due to a shoulder injury and then was one of the best pitching prospects in the 2024 Arizona Fall League, at times looking like a big league setup man. He broke camp with the big league club but was sent down after a walk-prone couple of weeks, then hit the IL with a strained oblique. As of list publication, he had rejoined Triple-A Round Rock.

Church sits 94-98 mph and has touched 101. His fastball is very difficult for opposing hitters to contact when he locates it toward the top of the zone, but he tends not to, and he’s developed a slider-heavy approach in order to throw more strikes. Church has a plus, upper-80s slider with big vertical depth when it finishes down and more of a cutter look when he dumps it into the zone; we’ve listed both here to illustrate that. There are times when he’ll flash a plus changeup, too, but his slider has enough utility against lefties that he hasn’t had to work with the cambio much. As he gets his feet wet in lower-leverage situations, hopefully he’ll make proactive use of it so it doesn’t die on the vine. Church is too erratic for a late-inning role right now, but he has the potential to grow into one.

It’s a small-sample curiosity that in the only major league playing time the former 14th overall pick has received (a paltry 44 plate appearances last season), Foscue struggled badly with contact and struck out 18 times. An above-average hit tool remains the steadiest part of a profile that has otherwise struggled to find a home at the big league level. Foscue’s strikeout and walk rates usually go stride-for-stride with each other in the low teens, and he is riding another in-zone contact rate above 90% at Triple-A Round Rock so far in 2025.

But Foscue’s profile is strange. He’s slid down the defensive spectrum and is splitting time at second and first base. He has bulked up to the point where he struggles badly to cover ground at the former spot, but he hasn’t matured into average raw power. Even with a fairly pull-heavy approach, 10-15 home runs is a safe full-season projection for his production, which is a little light for a starting first baseman, especially an undersized one who will likely play below-average defense. There’s still the hit tool and approach of a high-level bat-first reserve here, but with Foscue’s second base defense trending toward being wholly unpalatable for more than occasional fill-in work, it’s a frustratingly narrow path to value for such a talented hitter.

A three-year junior college pitcher (with a gap year in there), Tiger seemed poised for a 2024 breakout but got hurt instead. He missed the first two months of the season due to elbow inflammation and then needed surgery in September (internal brace), which will keep him out for all of 2025. Tiger stomped onto the radar during the Rangers’ 2024 Spring Breakout game. He came out of the bullpen and sat 96-98 with explosive life and a buck nasty 88-90 mph cutter/slider. He was also learning a splitter that he lacked any kind of feel for locating, but the velo Tiger was showing as a starter and the raw quality of his slider/cutter give him late-inning relief ceiling if the Rangers choose to ‘pen him when he returns. The 2026 season is his 40-man evaluation year, so they might do so immediately.

Osuna had an amazing 2024 season, as he slashed .292/.362/.507 at a mix of High- and Double-A, then played with his hair on fire for six weeks in the Arizona Fall League, where he won the Dernell Stenson Sportsmanship Award.

Osuna projects as a spark plug extra outfielder. He’s strong for his size and has sneaky low-ball pop, but in most parts of the strike zone, he’s too late to the contact point to drive the ball with power. He sprays a lot of contact the other way, including piped fastballs. Osuna plays with all-out effort on defense but doesn’t always get great reads off the bat. He’s a fringe center fielder and above-average in the corner, a guy who’ll make a lot of diving and sliding plays, at times to make up for an initial misstep. Osuna’s energy and motor are great to have around. He should play a role similar to the one Guillermo Heredia 에레디아 played on recent Braves teams.

One of the few undrafted high school signees from the 2020 draft, Stephan is back at Double-A Frisco and throwing tons of strikes again after a UCL sprain ate up most of his 2024 season. His kitchen-sink mix has kept lefties at bay this season. But even as it has ticked up to 94-95 mph at times, his four-seamer has vulnerable shape and has been getting killed by right-handers, to the tune of 10 homers allowed in 41 innings. His plus slider is his best pitch but it’s strained as the load-bearing weapon of a starter’s arsenal. At this point, Stephan is tracking like a multi-inning swingman, with enough strikes to make for an appealing spot starter option.

Acquired as part of the Rafael Montero trade with the Mariners in 2020, Corniell is a pitchability righty who’ll miss most all of 2025 recovering from elbow surgery. When we last saw Corniell in 2023, he was putting the bow on a 2.92 ERA season split between both A-ball levels. His fastball sits 93 and plays up because of his command, and he has almost robotic glove-side feel for slider location. He can also throw his sinking changeup for strikes, but it often finishes inside the zone. It’s not sexy, but Corniell has the look of a low-variance backend starter. He was added to the Rangers’ 40-man roster after the 2024 season, in the middle of his rehab, which puts him in the mix to compete for spot start opportunities next year.

The Rangers had 2025 international amateur bonus pool space left over from their pursuit of Roki Sasaki and used it to sign Seong-Jun Kim, a two-way player and junior at Gwangju Jeil High School (which also produced Byung-hyun Kim 김병현, Hee-Seop Choi 최희섭, and others) in South Korea, to a $1.2 million bonus. Kim will graduate in January and then make his way to the U.S. to begin his career. He’s the first Korean amateur player to sign a contract for more than $1 million since Ji-Hwan Bae signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2017 for $1.25 million.

Kim is generally seen as having been a likely first round pick in the 2026 KBO draft had he stayed home, but he wasn’t a lock to go first overall or anything like that; this isn’t a guy with enormous physical tools. He has been up to 95 mph on the mound but generally sits 89-93 with natural cut, and he has an average breaking ball that projects above. As a position player, Kim has experience at third base and shortstop, and obviously has the arm for either. He’s a well-built 6-foot-2 with roughly average overall athleticism and above-average frame projection. An all-fields approach to contact has somewhat limited his high school power output (he hit just one dinger as a junior), but it’s a great foundation with which to enter pro ball, and hopefully he’ll add power via strength rather than a narrow approach.

It seems likely that Kim, who was deciding in the months leading up to his May signing whether he’s come to the U.S. or not, will begin his pro career in Arizona as a hitter during extended spring training and the ACL, and then pitch during Instructional/Bridge League after the regular season is over so his workload can be manicured. It’s probably more likely that Kim will succeed as a pitcher, less because of anything to do with his talent and more because of how hard it is to hit big league pitching. For now, he’s a fascinating developmental project who is the latest in a growing number of Asian amateur players who, rather than be drafted by their home country’s league, are coming to the U.S. for college or pro ball straight out of high school.

Curtis was committed to Division II Barry University when he signed as an undrafted free agent. He had something of a breakout 2024 at Low-A, where he worked 82 innings of sub-3.00 ERA ball at age 20. He has a fair four-pitch mix but is mostly a prospect because of his plus projected command. Curtis has great on-mound rhythm and repeats his delivery with advanced consistency. His four-seam fastball averages 93 mph and touches 96, and Curtis throws high-quality strikes with it and his mid-80s slider. His changeup actually had a better miss rate than his slider in 2024 but is variable in quality and movement. Still, his delivery is consistent enough to project on that pitch. Curtis is still just 21 and is a spindly 6-foot-4, 180 pounds or so. He might have another gear in the tank as he fills out, but for now his stuff projects to the back of a rotation.

Segura is a very projectable 6-foot-3 righty with an open-striding, low-slot delivery that creates tailing, uphill action on his low-90s fastball. He’s a nightmare for opposing righties because of his arm slot, which makes it tough for them to see his slider. Segura’s changeup feel is good for a pitcher his age, and he’s a loose, lanky athlete who stands a good chance to throw harder as he matures. There’s a relief path for him that looks more like Miguel Castro, but for now Segura looks like a developmental starter who climbs into this FV tier because he has such a good delivery and projectable build. He was acquired from Philly for upper-level reliever Daniel Robert during the 2025 season.

Cabrera signed for $10,000 in 2022 and spent two seasons in the DSL, producing enormous in-game power in the second. He came to the U.S. for baseball activity in 2024 and continued to slug in a profound way on the complex in Surprise en route to being second in the ACL in homers with nine. His swing is ferocious even though Cabrera is a smaller guy, and it’s geared for lift in the extreme. He averaged 20 degrees of launch in 2024 and is capable of impacting the ball in the air all over the zone. This isn’t necessarily a good thing — part of the reason there are few big leaguers with a similar average launch is because it isn’t a sustainable way to approach major league pitching unless you’re a pretty special hitter. As Cabrera faces Low-A hurlers, he is starting to whiff a ton, and he’s struggling so far in 2025. This guy is allergic to spin, and will have to make significant adjustments in his early 20s to stay on the prospect radar. A saving grace for Cabrera right now is that he can play center field. He hauls ass into the gaps with reckless abandon and is comfortable at the catch point. He’s got a shot to play a role as a flawed power-and-defense part-time outfielder.

Santana played a little bit for the Arkansas Sticks travel ball team (Logan O’Hoppe, Jonathan Ornelas, Jaden Hill and many others have worn that uni) and stood apart from all but a few talented U.S. high schoolers at the events he attended. There was a stretch when Santana was connected to the Dodgers, but in the months leading up to international amateurs signing in January 2024, something changed and he suddenly had a $1.3 million agreement with Texas. He spent his first pro season in the DSL (.292 /.465/.364) and has come to the U.S. for the 2025 season.

Santana is an explosive rotational athlete with a tendency to inside-out pitches to right field. His proclivity for opposite field contact is so extreme that it’s actually a bit concerning, as his barrel takes forever to get to a spot where he’d be able to pull the ball with power. The electricity in his hands is exciting, but Santana has enormous hit tool risk because of how long it takes his swing to ignite. There have been times so far in 2025 when he’s cut his leg kick and stride completely to try to be on time, but it hasn’t worked. He remains in the 40 FV tier as a toolsy, high-risk prospect to monitor for improvements in contact ability.

Standing at a wiry 6-foot-1 with a delivery that brings to mind the verb “sling,” Collyer is enjoying a velo spike out of the bullpen six years after he was wooed out of a Clemson commitment for a little under $600,000. Collyer’s 96-99 mph heater has as much run as it has vert, but it still plays with an uphill angle thanks to his funky low slot. Combined with a high-80s slider and below-average control, it makes for a certified real bad time for right-handed hitters, and certified difficult time finding a pitch that can reliably crowd lefties. The stuff is loud enough to project him as a medium-leverage righty specialist, with the potential for more if he finds finds the feel for his cutter.

For a 25-year-old still clinging to some rookie eligibility, Winn has lived a thousand prospect lives. He’s old enough to have been part of the Rangers “de-loading” experiment, but even if you picked up his scent as a reliever last season, his profile has undergone still more tweaks. While his four-seamer is touching 97 mph this year, it lacks bat-missing shape and Winn has shifted toward favoring an equally high-contact sinker that he has a better feel for locating right now. It gives him more of a groundball-oriented (he’s around 55%) sinker-slider look, especially since his splitter has not taken on the central role in his arsenal it seemed like it would when it flashed plus as he debuted with the big club last year. Winn’s ability to avoid walks is strained by having to throw this many sliders, and he faces a similar challenge with the kitchen sink approach he uses to lefties, which includes re-upping the use of his once signature curveball. There’s a dispiriting lack of chase generated by this new mix, but with good velo, the variety of shapes Winn can flash to hitters of either handedness, and the side detail that he’s yet to allow a single earned run all year, a middle-leverage projection feels like it works here.

Agreda is an undersized righty at Low-A Hickory who is in his third straight year of throwing very hard. Since 2023, he has tended to live in the 94-99 mph range in a piggyback role, working three to five innings at a time. He’s already blown through his career innings high in 2025, and it’s important to key in on how his stuff trends throughout this season, which is Agreda’s 40-man platform year.

Agreda has struggled pretty severely with walks in the past (career rates in the 11-14% range) and that continues in 2025, though it makes sense to develop him as a starter to see if his feel for location improves. He’s a powerful on-mound athlete for a smaller guy, and he has a super short, vertical arm action. In theory, the short action should help him have a consistent release, and the vertical ride on his heater (which is average) should allow him to be a little loose within the zone and still thrive. But there’s been little progress in this area, and Agreda is pretty likely to end up a power middle reliever with a great curveball. Some of his slower curveballs have 20 mph in separation from his fastballs. He can manipulate the shape into more of a slider look, but his best breakers are his in-the-dirt curves. He can kill spin on his changeup (1,600 rpm), but his feel for location is so raw that it’s tough to project heavily on that offering.

This guy has a sneaky shot to make a big league bullpen impact in 2026, just because of his roster timeline and the possibility that the Rangers ‘pen him permanently at some point this year for both workload and 40-man evaluation purposes. If Agreda thrives in that role during the second half, he’ll be an interesting roster candidate for the offseason.

Tommy John surgery limited Bonzagni to just 23 combined innings at Weatherford College in Texas before he transferred to Southern Illinois in his draft year. The Rangers are trying to upcycle him as a pro starter, and if you’re going by his 2024 performance alone (25.5% K, 7.8% BB, 55% GB% across 89 IP), it seems like he has a shot. To the eye, he looks like a reliever. Bonzagni’s arm action is really long and fairly violent, his slot imparts sink/tail on his heater, and he’s of modest build. He doesn’t look or move like most big league starters, though developmentally he’s just scratching the surface and might be able to have a starter’s repertoire at peak. He has a promising mid-80s slider but barely worked with a changeup in 2024. Bonzagni made just a couple starts in 2025 before he was shut down with elbow inflammation. His realistic upside is that of a middle reliever.

The raw ingredients of an athletic low-slot righty with high-90s heat and usable control of his secondaries is bound to coalesce into a medium-leverage righty specialist at some point. Hales has kept his walks in check at every level and has a strikeout rate just north of 31% at Double-A Frisco, this despite his four-seamer having pedestrian ride and his secondaries (which include some nascent efforts at a cutter and curve this year) generating a curious lack of chase. As shown by his extreme platoon splits thus far in 2025, Hales could be limited by vulnerability to lefties until either of these newer options develop. Hales is a tightly-wound athlete who has already touched 99 mph this year, and is an anti-lefty weapon away from being big league ready. That could make for a quick ascent or a slow boil.

It’s been three years since the Rangers traded away Willie Calhoun, but with Ortiz they look poised to address their present dearth of undersized, defensively-limited, rolly-polly shaped lefty platoon bats. Ortiz’s profile is carried by unquestionably above-average power (108.8 mph 90th-percentile EV) and defined by his dogged pursuit of accessing it (43% air-pull rate). Few players in the minors are catching the ball out in front as relentlessly as Ortiz, and relatedly, his profile remains held back by excessive chase. His vulnerability to sliders in particular is going to limit him to a platoon role, and advanced righties are going to use his willingness to expand the bottom of the zone to pelt him with changeups below the level where he can do damage. After a disastrous start to 2024, Ortiz resuscitated his prospect status with a monster second half, but he’s repeating Double-A at age 23 and is mostly treading water. Despite some work in right field alongside first base, this is a profile with very strict limitations, and Ortiz needs to mash to reach a bench bat future.

Figueroa has a very entertaining lefty uppercut swing that generates big pull power for a hitter his age. His physicality enabled him to hit for power in rookie and A-ball, and he hit 20 homers in 2024 even as the cracks in his offensive profile, which have been lurking the entire time, began to show. He hit .130 versus breakers in 2024, and though that has improved somewhat so far in 2025, Figueroa is still pulling off a ton of pitches away from him, and is striking out at a 29% clip after a 27% mark last year.

Figueroa is going to have to keep his build in check to remain at third base. He has the arm to play there, but the plays he tries to make tend to unfold too slowly and result in superfluous bang-bang plays at first base. A 1B/3B defensive combo probably keeps Figueroa on the roster as a part-time corner slugger if he can continue to improve his defense. His contact issues will probably prevent him from being an everyday player.

Morel signed for just under $100,000 in 2023 and has had two power-hitting rookie ball seasons, with a .307/.407/.575 line in Surprise last year. He’s a very physical teenage outfielder who is still listed at a comical 180 pounds on his player page. In reality, he’s pushing closer to 230 pounds already at age 19, and he has the kind of raw power you’d expect given a young hitter that size. Morel’s hit tool is a bit suspect. He K’d at a 24% clip in his first two seasons and his strikeout rate has exploded in 2025 as he repeats the ACL. His ability to do damage is limited to a relatively narrow part of the zone. He could feasibly be a power-over-hit corner guy in the Nelson Velázquez mold, but we’d like to see him mash against upper-level pitching before declaring him any more than a power-hitting bench weapon.

Rodriguez was ranked 47th on the 2025 International Board and signed for a smidgen over $1 million. Elorky is a compact corner outfield prospect with a great-looking swing. With a smaller, more mature build, it’s tough to project prototypical corner power for Rodriguez, but he might have a balanced enough offensive skill set to be a righty-mashing platoon type.

Originally signed by the Mariners in 2018, Curvelo became a six-year minor league free agent last November and signed a big league deal with the Rangers not long after. The tightly wound right-hander has big arm strength that plays down due to his fastball’s shape and his lackluster command. His bullet-spin slider is very nasty and has uncommon depth for a pitch in the 83-87 mph range. It also plays as a strike-stealer in the zone, and Curvelo’s feel for landing it is much better than his feel for locating his heater. He had success in a one- and two-inning relief role with Seattle’s Double-A affiliate in 2024 and looked like an up/down reliever. Curvelo was called up just before list publication and is a nice up/down option.

Ahlstrom was drafted by the Yankees, but he never threw a pitch for the org because he was shut down after he signed and traded just before the start of the 2022 season for Jose Trevino. After one year as a starter, the Rangers moved Ahlstrom to the bullpen and his velocity has climbed into a range that will probably allow him to be a solid up/down lefty reliever despite below-average control. Ahlstrom has raised his arm slot since college and is sitting 95 with ride, often for four to six outs at a time. His two breaking balls vary more in their velo than their shape. It’s a pretty standard lefty relief mix, and if Ahlstrom can polish his command a shade more than we have projected here, he could easily be a second lefty who’s consistently rostered.

Lobus, an undrafted sidearmer, carved up the lower minors, showing immaculate control from a release height less than five feet off the ground. He became a reliever full-time last season and has become even more slider-centric as a result. That set him up to be more acutely affected when the pitch backed up this season, shifting to a sweepier shape that has drawn less chase; it has led to a 12.3% walk rate over the first two months of 2025. It has looked better of late, but lays bare how tenuous a specialist relief profile can be.

Lopez signed in January and was skipped over the DSL in favor of the complex in Arizona, where he’s pitching out of the bullpen. He’s a lanky 6-foot-4 southpaw with mid-90s heat and a plus-flashing curveball. He was 92-94 in his most recent outing prior to list publication, while his curveball spins in at 77-81 mph. A high-octane delivery gives Lopez the look of a developmental reliever who might throw very hard at maturity, but his career is just starting, so let’s see how his workload and role evolves the rest of this year and next. Starting him in the ACL puts him ahead of the developmental curve somewhat; there’s lots of time for a slow build up of innings and the addition of new pitches. For now, Lopez’s frame, arm strength, and breaking ball quality make him a fairly exciting low-level prospect.

Most 2020 undrafted free agents were college prospects, but the super lanky Curry signed out of high school and put himself on the prospect map with a stunning first full season in pro ball that saw him post a 29.1% K% and 10.2% BB% across 88.1 innings. Because of his size and burgeoning arm strength, he was a Pick to Click entering the 2024 season. Since then, Curry has struggled. He K’d more than a batter per inning in 2024, but he gave up 20 homers in 93.2 innings pitched, his walk rate backed up, and he finished with a 6.44 ERA. Curry’s command continues to falter in 2025, as he’s walking 18% of opponents as of list publication. He’s still a 6-foot-5 string bean with a loose arm action and plus-flashing, long-breaking slider. He’s also only 22 and has time to fill out and maybe enjoy a velo spike if he’s moved to the bullpen. He’s valued here as a potential late bloomer because of his build.

Bormie is an arm strength lottery ticket who was a starter and long reliever in 2024 but has been deployed more as a single-inning reliever in 2025. He’s had a huge velo spike and is averaging 97-98 and touching 101. He has better feel for landing his slider for strikes, so he pitches off of that most often. It’s in the 85-88 mph range and has curveball shape a lot of the time. Bormie sprays his fastball all over the place and is too wild to trust in a meaningful relief role right now, but if he keeps pitching like he has so far in 2025 (35.9% K%, 12.8% BB%), he’ll be on the 40-man fringe come this offseason.

Valverde signed as a 20-year-old and spent most of his first two seasons in the DSL before the Rangers began accelerating his promotion pace over the last nine months. He came to Arizona last year and then broke 2025 camp with the Low-A roster. He’s scattering mid-to-upper-90s fastballs all over the place at Hickory, and has walked more than a batter per inning as of list publication. Valverde’s best sliders are right up there with the best ones you’ve ever seen in your life. They have 20-plus inches of horizontal break and absurd length for a pitch in the 84-88 mph range. This guy has huge variance for a relief-only prospect his age, and he may always be too wild to be anything at all, but he has setup man upside if things click for him. Right now, he’s throwing so few strikes that we have to value him toward the bottom of that range of outcomes.

Reyes signed in November of last year as a 19-year-old and was immediately sent to the domestic complex for the 2025 season. He looks like a potential middle reliever in Surprise, where he’s sitting 94-97 mph in single-inning bursts and bending in a plus-flashing 84-86 mph slider with 2-to-8 shape. He’s lanky, has an open-striding delivery that creates downhill angle on his stuff, and has a sturdy-looking 6-foot-2 frame. It wouldn’t be crazy if the Rangers attempted to stretch Reyes out as a starter in 2026 or 2027 if they can flesh out a third pitch, or if he shows improved command during the next year or so. For now, he’s a developmental arm strength guy in rookie ball.

Drafted in the second-to-last round of the 2019 draft, Rodriguez didn’t pitch the summer after he signed, nor in 2020. Aside from one season, he has struggled to keep his walks under control for the last four years and should be considered a low-probability prospect. Still, his stuff is absurd, and he has meaningful relief ceiling if he can ever develop even 35-grade control. He was sitting 95-97 in his ACL rehab outing just before list publication, and his mid-80s slider had an absurd 67% miss rate in 2024. It’s power relief stuff with 20 control and a ticking developmental clock as Rodriguez approaches minor league free agency. Can your team’s dev group fix this guy?