Rangers farm system ranked 9th overall by Baseball Prospectus

The Baseball Prospectus Organizational Rankings are out and the Rangers have landed in the top third in the league at ninth overall.

Texas ending up in the top ten might come as a surprise to some as the Rangers don’t really have one of those fancy Vladdy Jr. or Fernando Tatis Jr. uber crown jewel type prospects to headline their group, but they do sport an impressive amount of depth with some exciting upside, especially on the mound, and certainly in the lower levels.

General Manager Jon Daniels has been touting the system over the winter as potentially making the leap into the realm of the league’s best systems and it seems clear that BP is willing to get in on the ground floor of Daniels’ anticipated ascension.

Earlier this winter, Baseball America ranked Texas 25th overall among the 30 MLB teams. Likewise, Keith Law at ESPN pegged the Rangers at 20th best which, after BP’s more rosy appraisal today, shows the disparity among the prospect evaluation services on just where the Rangers currently sit in their farm system overhaul.

Whereas it seems BA has dinged the Rangers for not having much in the way of upper level, upper-echelon difference makers, and Law wants to see more out of the lower level prospects before buying in, BP likes what the Rangers are doing in regards to hoarding talent that can one day contribute at the big league level.

Discovering which ranking was “right” will be interesting to follow this season, and we will probably even get a decent answer soon as some of those lower level prospects begin to make their climb to Frisco and Texas unleashes last season’s draft class later this summer.

You can also expect another influx of talent coming in June and July after a 95-loss season in 2018 gives Texas a leg up over the majority of the league in bonus pool spending in the draft and on the international market.

For the Rangers, and their rebuild effort, they have to be hoping BP’s assessment is more in tune with their own opinion of the group of youngsters they’re hoping will lead them back to the win column at their new building beginning in 2020 and beyond.