Marc Church on Rangers Fast Track

The Texas Rangers pitching prospect is up to No. 20 overall in the system and impressing coaches this spring.

Big-league careers and position changes have started on lesser things than a summer bet between friends.

Texas Rangers minor-league pitcher Marc Church will turn 22 later this month. The highly-regarded pitching prospect is in his first Major League camp and, well, that’s just not something he expected this season.

There are more perks to it than just a better food spread and hotel rooms.

“Being around these veterans, just picking their brains and seeing what they do off the field and their routine has really been helping me,” Church said.

Church was scheduled to be in the pitching lineup Wednesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

It wasn’t that long ago that Church was an infielder at North Atlanta High School in Atlanta. Yes, an infielder. Just like Rangers pitcher Jacob deGrom was a shortstop at Stetson before he was asked to switch positions.

The summer before his senior year, a teammate bet Church he could hit 88 mph on the radar gun. Church won the bet. He hit 90.

That led his coaches to move him to pitcher and got him on the radar of MLB teams for the 2019 Draft, where the Rangers selected him in the 18th round.

He didn’t play professionally in 2019 or 2020, the latter of which due to the COVID-19 shutdown of minor-league baseball. By his own admission, he threw just a couple of dozen innings in high school.

Now, he has a well-regarded fastball that can reach 97 mph and a fast-developing slider.

MLB.com now rates Church as the system’s No. 20 overall prospect. In two pro seasons he accelerated all the way up to Double-A Frisco and has a 6-6 record with a 4.24 ERA. He’s struck out 127 batters in just 76 1/3 total innings.

He’s just one piece of a minor-league system that Rangers manager Bruce Bochy described as “loaded” earlier this week.

“There’s a guy some don’t know about, Marc Church,” Bochy said. “He’s been really impressive, but I don’t want to leave anybody out.”

Church has little chance to make it to Arlington after Spring Training. But he’s on a path that could quickly put him in position to challenge for a spot. MLB.com projects Church’s ETA for the Majors at 2023.

He knows that his time in Surprise will do nothing but help.

“I’m just trying to show what I have and show what I’m made of,” Church said. “I know I probably won’t make the team out of camp, but I’m just showing the coaches who I am and what I can do.”

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