The Rangers will call up infielder Jonathan Ornelas from Triple-A prior to Monday’s game with the Athletics, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports (Twitter link). Ornelas will take the roster spot of Josh Jung, as the third baseman is headed for the 10-day injured list after suffering a fractured thumb in today’s 6-0 win over the Marlins. It will mark the Major League debut for the 23-year-old Ornelas whenever he makes his first in-game appearance.
Ornelas is already on the Rangers’ 40-man roster, as Texas added him last winter in advance of the Rule 5 Draft. A third-round pick for the Rangers in the 2018 draft, Ornelas has displayed some good on-base numbers over the last two seasons in the minors, though his overall hitting profile has yet to truly develop, given his .250/.360/.348 slash line over 398 plate appearances at Triple-A this season.
This hitting potential ranks as the biggest question for MLB Pipeline (who rank Ornelas as the 14th-best prospect in the Rangers’ farm system) and Baseball America (28th). As BA’s scouting report puts it, Ornelas is “an extremely aggressive hitter who has below-average swing decisions and pitch recognition.” His hard-contact abilities are muted by his inconsistency at keeping those hard-hit balls off the ground, though he has enjoyed some high BABIPs during his minor league career. As for fielding, Baseball America gave Ornelas a modest 45 on the 20-80 scouting scale, while Pipeline was notably higher with a 60-grade for his glovework, describing Ornelas as a good utility infield candidate whose ultimate MLB future will be determined by how well he can fare at the plate.
Ornelas has mostly played shortstop in the minors, also garnering a good amount of time at second base, third base, and center field. This ability to play shortstop might be why Texas opted to promote Ornelas, as beyond Jung’s injury, Corey Seager is not yet entirely recovered from a recent thumb sprain that resulted in an IL trip. Seager didn’t play today and manager Bruce Bochy told the Associated Press and other reporters that Seager may also sit out Monday’s game for additional rest.
Ezequiel Duran is the first-choice substitute at shortstop if Seager isn’t in the lineup, but Duran and Josh H. Smith now also figure to split duties at third base in Jung’s absence. With utilityman Brad Miller also on the IL recovering from a hamstring strain, Ornelas will provide the Rangers with another multi-positional depth option as they figure out how to both fill Jung’s spot and manage Seager’s health.
Why this guy over Foscue?
Foscue will probably get his chance in September
Foscue is pretty rough defensively and apparently doesn’t have the arm for third.
Probably because he already is on the 40 man so you don’t have to release someone else when calling him up.
However I don’t quite understand what the plan is with foscue anyway.he is 24 and pretty blocked and many people thought he would have been a trade chip at the deadline but if you don’t trade him and you don’t call him up when an obvious spot opens due to injury what are you doing here?
I doubt he will be more valuable at 25 than he is at 24 so what is the plan here? Didn’t they get a good offer for him at the deadline so they try to trade him again this offseason? Maybe they hope he has a hot last month in the minors rather than struggling in the majors so they get a better price this offseason when trading him.
If the plan was to keep him this would have been the perfect opportunity to “test” him.
Obviously I have no idea but I wonder if they tried to include him instead of Acuna. Foscue isn’t having an awesome season, so maybe the Mets didn’t bite. The guy needs to hit as his bat is what will carry him.
I love that BB to K ratio, though. Foscue has that going. Why couldn’t they dump this guy instead of Saggese and throw in other guys?
Maybe they didn’t want him, and wanted Saggese?
Yeah for sure. I think Oscue is going to hit pretty well at some point, but maybe because Ornelas is a good defender he makes more sense atm. Either way Duran is clearly going to start with Smitty backing him up
I wouldn’t worry about his not so great stats. His k to bb rate is elite and there is some pop too, he probably just got unlucky with his babip (.273).
An issue with him is the defense though, some teams might see him as a first Baseman and then see a lack of power,a high obp guy who hits 18 Homers a year isn’t the prototypical 1b.
Saggese has the advantage of being able to play shortstop so if his bat is only so-so he still has value as a utility guy while foscue if the bat is only average is not so valuable.
Because Ornelas is on the 40-man roster, Foscue doesn’t play defense at any position very well, and he’s not hitting great over the last month anyway.
How does a .250 ave with .360 OBA indicate “a below average Swing decisions and pitch recognition”??? That’s a lot of walks!
Maybe he takes a lot of hittable pitches.
They’re obviously looking for defense and position versatility as a .708 OPS in the PCL does not indicate he’ll provide much with the bat. Not saying he won’t develop as a hitter, but he’s not there yet.
Must be nice to have that….what do they call that? Oh yeah, player depth, said the White Sox fan.