Texas Rangers Top Pick Debuts, Collects First Pro Hit

Jason Burke | Aug 8, 2024

Stanford's catcher Malcolm Moore (10) prepares to hit the ball against Texas Tech in game one of their non-conference baseball series, Monday, April 1, 2024, at Rip Griffin Park. / Annie Rice/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Texas Rangers selected former Stanford Cardinal backstop Malcolm Moore with the No. 30 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, and after a little time getting acclimated in the Arizona Complex League, he was assigned to the Hickory Crawdads in High-A on Tuesday.

After an 0-for-3 first game that still saw him score twice and strike out once while batting fourth as the team's DH, Moore was behind the plate on Wednesday, batting cleanup yet again. With runners at first and third and one away, Moore stepped to the plate and lined a double to center, scoring one, giving him both his first professional hit and his first run batted in.

Malcolm Moore notches his first pro hit and RBI with one swing for the High-A @HickoryCrawdads 💪

The @Rangers' 2024 first-round pick delivered a .958 OPS across two seasons for @StanfordBSB. pic.twitter.com/buJ5JRxuRN

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) August 8, 2024

Moore signed with the Rangers for $3 million, which is slightly higher than the $2,971,300 slot value of the pick. One of the few prospect sites to have updated system rankings that include the recent draftees is Baseball America, and they rank Moore as the No. 3 prospect in Texas' system, behind shortstop Sebastian Walcott, an 18-year-old signed by Texas in January of 2023, and second baseman Justin Foscue, 25, who was drafted by Texas in 2020 with the No. 14 overall selection.

Foscue is currently in Triple-A, but Walcott is a new teammate of Moore's with the Crawdads. Neither Foscue nor Moore is listed in BA's top 100 prospect rankings.

The plan for recent draftees is to report to their new affiliate and just gain a little experience with the new schedule, which includes playing six straight days, instead of playing three or four games per week.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Oakland A's clubhouse provided some advice to the team's recent draftees that is applicable to any player that's reporting for their first assignment. The most consistent piece of advice was to trust yourself and what got you picked in the first place. There will be times to make adjustments on a player's journey to the big leagues, but that first half-season after getting picked is more about getting your legs under you and becoming acclimated with what life is going to be like.

The adjustments will come in the following years.