Rangers minor league rosters announced

The 2022 rosters for the Texas Rangers’ full season minor league affiliates — the Round Rock Express, the Frisco Roughriders, the Hickory Crawdads, and the Down East Wood Ducks — have been announced today.

Round Rock’s roster is about as prospect-laden as we’ve seen from a Rangers’ AAA affiliate in some time. Cole Winn, Sam Huff, Josh Smith, Davis Wendzel, Leody Taveras, Sherten Apostel, Jake Latz and Bubba Thompson are all with the Express to start the season. Also noteworthy, at least to me, is that righthanded reliever Daniel Robert, who earned praise this spring, is also with Round Rock — he’s someone who could end up being a major league bullpen option at some point in 2022 if he shows out at Round Rock.

Jack Leiter is making his professional debut with the AA Frisco Roughriders, which I think was sort of expected, although it was always possible he would get his feet wet at high-A for a few starts before being moved up. He’s joined by Cody Bradford, Zak Kent, Cole Ragans, Justin Slaten and Avery Weems in what is a really interesting rotation. Dustin Harris, Blaine Crim and Ezequiel Duran return to Frisco, with David Garcia and Jonathan Ornelas among those who will be getting their first taste of AA action.

High-A Hickory’s rotation is starting the year with some sizzle, as Owen White, Ricky Vanasco, T.K. Roby and Mason Englert are all starting the year with the Crawdads. White and Vanasco are guys who could move up to AA quickly, however. Marc Church is also back on the mound after missing the end of the 2021 season, and will be in the ‘Dads bullpen. Evan Carter, Aaron Zavala, and Trevor Hauver are all listed as outfielders for Hickory, while Thomas Saggese, Luisangel Acuna and Chris Seise are among those who will be in the infield.

Finally, low-A Down East features a variety of young arms of interest. Dylan Maclean, Bradford Webb, Josh Stephen, Destin Dotson, Jose Corniell, Michael Brewer, Nick Lockhart, Damian Mendoza and Gavin Collyer are all guys we are going to want to follow this season. Maximo Acosta and Junior Paniagua are among those who will be manning the infield, and Daniel Mateo, Alejandro Osuna, Yosy Galan and the guy who was supposed to be the prize of the Mike Minor trade (before Dustin Harris busted out), Marcus Smith, are listed among the outfielders.

The full rosters are available below: