ARLINGTON — Proof of organization-wide pitching improvement, the Texas Rangers hope, will materialize in the form of legitimate on-field major league success from homegrown arms.
Alejandro Rosario will need to stand as validation until then.
He might already be a significant draft-and-development win. The Rangers turned Rosario — a 23-year-old right-hander who had a 6.53 ERA and barely better than a 2-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in three college seasons — into one of baseball’s best pitching prospects in less than two years.
Texas selected Rosario out of Miami in the fifth round of the 2023 MLB draft. He was described by Baseball America beforehand as an “intriguing pro development prospect with performance that has never quite matched the natural arm talent.” The Rangers have helped make the two align: Rosario reached No. 49 on the outlet’s updated top 100 prospects list released Wednesday after a standout professional debut last season. Only nine right-handed pitchers ranked higher than him.
“They gave me a plan and I trusted it,” Rosario said last Friday at Globe Life Field during the Rangers’ prospect minicamp. “I just took off with the plan that they gave me.”
The plan, as Rosario described it, was less so focused on mechanics and more so on his pitch usage and location. He was instructed to attack the top of the strike zone, not the bottom of it, and was encouraged to throw his fastball-splitter duo “more aggressively.” The result was a 2.24 ERA, 129 strikeouts and 13 walks in 88 1/3 innings. He started the season in Single-A Down East, earned a promotion to High-A Hickory by June and joined Double-A Frisco in September.
“That goes to show how much the team knows,” Rosario said. “[It’s] the information that they’re giving you, but also, they’re well invested in you and your future.”
Consider that a cost-effective venture after the club had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on starting pitching to address an overwhelming need brought on by decades of futile development. But, as general manager Ross Fenstermaker told The Dallas Morning News last August, the organization may finally be “on the cusp of accomplishing something” in that department.
Rosario might be a solid poster boy for it. So, too, could left-hander Cody Bradford, whom the Rangers have developed from a soft-throwing sixth-round draft choice into a reliable major league starter. Or, even, right-hander Jack Leiter. His first two seasons after the Rangers selected him second overall in the 2021 MLB draft were erratic, but since a massive overhaul to his mental and physical game, he’s gotten back on track. Rocker, who debuted in the majors last September, might be the best of them. Right-handers Emiliano Teodo and Winston Santos — both of whom the Rangers signed for $10,000 and developed into major league prospects — showcase an eye for talent.
“We all have that strong connection,” Rosario said. “It’s a friendly competition between us.”
The Rangers will need them to compete in the big leagues to confirm any actualized success.
It’s not off to a bad start though.
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