Rangers place one on BP Top 50 Prospect List

Baseball Prospectus has released their midseason top 50 prospect list, and the Texas Rangers have one player who made the cut — Leody Taveras, who checks in at #29 on the list.

The fact that the Rangers even got one guy in the top 50 is somewhat surprising, given the state of the farm, which is generally seen as having a lot of interesting prospects but no real slam-dunk blue chips. Taveras, though, after slashing .294/.368/.376 for Down East and earning a promotion to Frisco, where he is slashing .268/.344/.339 in 64 plate appearances since moving up, has shown enough that he jumped up the list from #47 in the offseason.

Taveras has had a solid 2019 season, but the bottom line hasn’t necessarily changed from last year — quality glove in center field, and a nice swing that hasn’t translated into offensive performance, particularly power. If he turns into a quality defensive major league center fielder who doesn’t hit much, that still has value, but the hope is there’s still more pop there than we have seen.

In addition — and I overlooked this initially — Sam Huff made BP’s “Just Missed” list. Huff has, of course, burst on the national prospect scene after an insanely hot start at low-A, and while he hasn’t hit as well at high-A, he had a 400+ foot home run last night in the Futures Game that got people talking.