2019 Texas Rangers draft preview: Shea Langeliers

2019 MLB Draft Preview: Shea Langeliers scouting report

The 2019 MLB Draft is just four weeks away — the first round kicks off on June 3, 2019 — its time to start offering capsule looks at players the Texas Rangers could select with their top picks. The Rangers’ first round pick is at #8, their second round pick is at #50, and they have Milwaukee’s competitive balance pick, acquired in the Alex Claudio trade, which is #41.

Leading up to draft day, we will be doing writeups of some of the players who could end up getting selected by the Rangers with one of their first three picks. Today, we are looking at Baylor catcher Shea Langeliers.

Shea Langeliers is a 6’1”, 190 lb. right handed hitting catcher currently in his junior season at Baylor University. Langeliers dropped on boards early on this spring after he broke a hamate bone that sidelined him, but has bounced back and performed well in recent weeks. Langeliers gets good reviews as a solid all-around catcher who is a quality throw-and-catch guy who projects to hit for a decent average but has questions about his power.

In their most recent rankings, MLB Pipeline has Langeliers at #11 on their board, praising his defense and his leadership skills. Keith Law has Langeliers at #12, while Baseball America has Langeliers at #17 on their most recent rankings. Fangraphs is the low service on Langeliers, having him at #26 overall.

I haven’t seen any mock drafts recently that have Langeliers off the board before Texas picks. Keith Law’s latest mock draft has Langeliers dropping to the Nationals at #17, while BA’s latest mock has him dropping to the Mariners at #20.

Like Josh Jung, there’s a certain amount of local fan sentiment supporting the selection of Langeliers, given he’s local (he graduated from Keller High School) and plays a position where the Rangers probably don’t have an upper-level guy clearly staking a claim to the position (though that may depend on your view on Isiah Kiner-Falefa and, to a lesser degree, Jose Trevino). However, Langeliers is a relatively low-ceiling player, and while he’s also relatively low-risk (or at least, relatively low-risk for a catcher), the Rangers have tended towards higher ceilings with their premium picks in the past. That being said, if the Rangers want to go below-slot at #8, Langeliers might be an option, particularly if it looks likely he would otherwise go in the 15-20 range.

Some video: