Baseball Prospectus has their organizational rankings out today, and the Texas Rangers just slid into the top half of the rankings, coming in at #14 out of the 30 teams, and included in the same tier with the Washington Nationals. Organizational rankings released earlier this offseason by Keith Law and Baseball America had the Rangers in the low-20s, so BP is more optimistic, a fact that their write-up acknowledges, saying that they “suspect we will be higher on” Texas and Washington than the general consensus.
There’s some particular praise for Kyle Cody and Cole Ragans, and of course, BP had Leody Taveras, Willie Calhoun and Ronald Guzman all in their top 100, as well as Mike Matuella making the list at #101.
2018 will be an interesting year to watch the lower levels of the farm system, as the most intriguing prospects Texas has will likely be toiling in A-ball or short-season A. Along with Ragans, 2017 first rounders Bubba Thompson and Hans Crouse have generated a lot of positive buzz, and big 2018 campaigns from them could have their stock shooting up this year.