FORT WORTH, Texas — Another way to know the Texas Rangers have been bad: For the third time in the last four years they have one of the top eight picks in the MLB amateur draft.
On Sunday, the Texas Rangers own the third overall selection in the MLB amateur draft, a dramatic improvement from last season, when they picked Vanderbilt pitcher Jack Leiter second.
They had the eighth pick in 2019, when they selected Texas Tech third baseman Josh Jung.
“I don’t think any of us is satisfied we are picking this high and we’re moving on to better things,” Rangers GM Chris Young said Thursday at Globe Life Mall.
Because so many previous drafts went poorly, the team spent about $500 million in free-agent contracts in the offseason to make sure they were actually “moving on to better things.”
The team is currently six games under .500, which is a dramatic improvement from their .370 winning percentage last season.
They should not be picking in the top 10 this time next year.
The draft is Sunday at 6 p.m. in Los Angeles.
If they are ever going to return to the World Series, some of these high picks must hit.
The question for the Rangers is, will they take a risk with the third overall pick, or go safe?
Outfielder Elijah Green is the most intriguing prospect of the potential high picks; as he has climbed he was previously compared to big league All-Stars Bryce Harper and Justin Upton.
“There’s like, five dudes in the big leagues that have those tools and as a 16-year-old he had those and still has them,” ESPN MLB draft analyst Kiley McDaniel said of Green’s evaluation two years ago.
Elijah Green’s father is former NFL tight end Eric Green; if you look at Eric’s son, you’d think he could be an NFL tight end this season.
“Everyone is like, you can’t walk away from these tools, and he’s a pretty good hitter, but like what are we going to do with this?” McDaniel said. “Do we want to take the safe guy and make sure we’re not going to get fired, but he also could change the face of your franchise. That’s the reason he’s in the conversation up here.”
The team that selects Green is taking his ceiling, and risking if he will even come close to reaching it.
He is the type of risk that the Rangers management has not been afraid of taking.
Under second year GM Young, even with Jon Daniels silently lording over the entire process, he may prefer to just be boring and safe.
“They’re one of the handful of teams that will take the very risky, very upside, very exciting high school player, and they still do that,” McDaniel said. “But ... it seems to be a trend now when you pick up top, take the guy that won’t get you fired.”
Young is in his second season, and he’s not apt to be fired any time soon.
He has room to pick an Elijah Green if he desires.
The good news for the Rangers is this class has three top, maybe four, elite prospects before there is a noticeable gap from the rest.
Expect the Rangers to take a high school player.
Expect that player to be a position player.
According to most of the “experts,” the top three prospects are outfielder Druw Jones from Georgia; he is the son of former major league outfielder Andruw Jones.
Shortstop Jackson Holliday out of Stillwater, Okla., is the son of former big league outfielder Matt Holliday.
Second baseman Termarr Johnson is from Mays, Georgia; Green plays at the IMG Academy in Florida.
Please note McDaniel said this week that he believes the Rangers are especially high on Georgia Tech catcher Kevin Parada.
There is no consensus No. 1.
There seldom is.
The consensus is these three 18-year-olds are the most talented players in this draft.
The Rangers are not saying anything about whom they like, hate, or love.
What they can’t afford to do is screw it up.
As Young said, they don’t want to have to do this again.
