Rangers Select Six Players
The Rangers have selected the contracts of six players who’d otherwise have been eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Infielders Luisangel Acuña and Jonathan Ornelas, outfielder Dustin Harris and pitchers Cole Winn, Owen White and Zak Kent have all gotten added to the 40-man roster, which is now at capacity.
Acuña, the younger brother of Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr., is a solid prospect in his own right. A right-handed hitter, Luisangel Acuña plays the middle infield. Baseball America credits him with plus defense at shortstop and considers him the #6 prospect in the Texas organization. Despite not turning 21 years old until March, he’s already played his way to Double-A. Acuña split the season between High-A Hickory and Double-A Frisco, combining for a .277/.369/.426 line through 409 plate appearances. He struggled in Double-A after an excellent showing in High-A and looks likely to start next year in Frisco.
Texas drafted Ornelas in the third round out of an Arizona high school in 2018. A righty-swinging infielder who’s played each of shortstop, second base and third base, he spent the whole season in Frisco. Ornelas had a solid .299/.360/.425 mark through 580 plate appearances, collecting 14 home runs and stolen bases apiece. He’s not among Texas’ top 30 prospects at BA but has shown decent contact skills and an ability to play the infield.
Harris was an 11th-round pick of the A’s in the 2019 draft out of a Florida junior college. Oakland dealt him to Texas in the Mike Minor trade in 2020. A left-handed hitter, he’s played mostly first base and left field in the minors. Harris is a bat-first prospect who’s coming off a .257/.346/.471, 17-homer showing in 85 games with Frisco. BA slots him 10th in the organization, praising his contact and power combination.
Winn was the 15th overall pick in the 2018 draft out of a California high school. The right-hander was regarded as a possible big league rotation piece heading into this year after a strong Double-A performance. He scuffled during his first extended crack with Triple-A Round Rock, allowing a 6.51 ERA with a massive 15.2% walk rate over 28 starts. He’ll try to right the ship next season and get back into the MLB rotation picture, but there was never much doubt he’d secure a 40-man roster spot this winter.
White, a 2nd-round pick in the 2018 draft out of a North Carolina high school, has surpassed Winn on the prospect radar. The 23-year-old righty didn’t throw a professional pitch until 2021 because of Tommy John surgery and the cancelation of the 2020 minor league season, but he’s performed well to make up for lost time. He put up a 3.59 ERA in 80 1/3 frames between Hickory and Frisco, striking out 31.7% of opponents. He placed fifth in the system on BA’s midseason update and could factor into the MLB rotation at some point next year.
Kent was a ninth-rounder in 2019 out of VMI. He started all 24 of his appearances in the upper minors last season, working to a 3.94 ERA through 109 2/3 innings. He punched out a decent 23.8% of batters faced against a 9.3% walk rate. He’s 25th in the system at Baseball America and could be a back-of-the-rotation option in the near future.
Jeff Wilson was first to report the moves.
Rangers Add Ricky Vanasco & Cole Winn To 60-Man Pool
The Rangers announced today that Ricky Vanasco and Cole Winn have each been added to the club’s 60-man player pool. Both are right-handed hurlers; neither has a 40-man roster spot.
It’s unlikely that either of these two young pitchers will have a real shot at earning a 2020 call-up. The move is probably intended to get them some work in the absence of a minor-league season.
Winn is a well-known prospect already, having landed with the Rangers with the 15th overall pick in the 2018 draft. The 20-year-old ran into some struggles at the Class A level in 2019, pitching to a 4.46 ERA with 8.5 K/9, 5.1 BB/9, and a 46.5% groundball rate in 68 2/3 innings. But those numbers reflected a rough early showing as well as a much more promising run in his final dozen starts of the year.
Vanasco, a former 15th-round pick, has drawn more attention for his work in the Texas organization than his promise upon entry. He showed intriguing arm strength and strikeout ability in low-A and Class A play last year, running up better than 13 strikeouts per nine while allowing less than two earned per nine at both levels.
Rangers Agree To Terms With First-Rounder Cole Winn
June 12: Sullivan tweets that Winn has agreed to a $3.15MM value that comes in below the recommended slot value.
June 10: The Rangers are in the final stages of an agreement with first-round pick Cole Winn, according to MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan and Wesley Dodson. Winn was on hand to watch the Astros/Rangers game today at Globe Life Park, and is scheduled to undergo a physical on Monday. Assuming no complications, he’ll be officially introduced at a Tuesday press conference, with Sullivan/Dodson noting that Winn is expected to sign for close to the $3,738,500 slot value attached to the 15th overall pick.
The 18-year-old Winn was one of the draft’s most highly-touted high schoolers and pitchers, coming off a very strong season for Orange Lutheran High School in Southern California. He was a consensus top-11 pick in pre-draft rankings from ESPN’s Keith Law, MLB.com, Fangraphs, and Baseball America, with Law placing Winn highest as the seventh-best overall prospect in this year’s draft class. Winn has three-plus pitches to his name — a fastball that has touched 96mph and a strong curveball and changeup — as well as a gradually-improving slider.
Law described Winn as “the best command guy in the high school class this year,” and wrote that “his delivery is one of the simplest in the draft as well, giving hope that his command will hold up in pro ball and that he’ll stay healthy.” His easy delivery adds to the common consensus among evaluators that Winn is a very safe pick for a high school pitcher. As Fangraphs’ scouting report puts it, “Winn is the only prep pitcher in a deep class with no yellow or red flags on his resume. He’s a near finished product with mid-rotation stuff, feel and consistency.”
That Fangraphs report also cited some rumors during the lead-up to the draft about Winn potentially being one of the first picks off the board, as his stock was high enough that the Giants reportedly gave some consideration to Winn as the second overall selection. Given this projection, the Rangers should feel quite pleased at Winn falling to the 15th spot.
Winn could be the first of several forthcoming draft signings for the Rangers, as Sullivan/Dodson write that most of all of the club’s top 10 draft picks are expected to finalize deals this week, pending physicals. The Rangers have an overall draft bonus pool of $7.356MM to spend on this year’s picks.