Texas Rangers On Clock With Top 5 MLB Draft Pick

The Texas Rangers have the No. 4 pick in the MLB Draft on Sunday, and it might be the last time they pick that high for a while.

Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers will draft in the top five of the MLB Draft for the third straight year. It’s a spot that Rangers general manager Chris Young would be more than happy to hand to another team in 2024.

“Our goal is to pick 30th moving forward and we’ve taken steps in that direction this year,” Young said.

The Rangers have the No. 4 pick in Sunday’s first round, after picking No. 2 in 2021 and No. 3 in 2022. The Rangers have MLB’s Draft Lottery to thank for moving them from No. 7 to No. 4.

That puts them in a position to select a top-five talent one more time to stock their minor-league system before likely returning to the back end of the first round in 2024.

The Rangers are in first place in the American League West and have one of the best records in baseball.

As for who that player will be, the Rangers naturally aren’t saying. But, Rangers director of amateur scouting Kip Fagg said that they have a list of five to seven players they’re honed in on.

Reputable mock drafts seem to have a consistent top five — LSU pitcher Paul Skenes, LSU outfielder Dylan Crews, Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford, outfielder Max Clark of Franklin Community (Indiana) High School, and outfielder Walker Jenkins of South Brunswick (NC) High School.

Most of those mock drafts connect the Rangers to either Clark or Jenkins, who are considered to be the best high school bats in the draft.

Skenes, Crews, and Langford all spent last month in Omaha, Neb., where they met in the final of the Men’s College World Series, which LSU won.

“We talk about the players in the room and we keep that part (high school or college) out of it,” Fagg said. “We do our work with our process, and the high school or college part of it doesn’t come up. We talk about it player to player.”

The Rangers have gone with college pitching each of the past two drafts, taking Vanderbilt’s Jack Leiter No. 2 overall in 2021 and Kumar Rocker No. 3 overall in 2022.

In fact, the Rangers have taken college talent with their first pick in each of the last five drafts, dating back to Josh Jung in 2019, who is now the Rangers’ starting third baseman.

Before that, the Rangers had a run of four straight high school first-rounders, which included pitcher Cole Ragans, outfielder Bubba Thompson and pitcher Cole Winn.

Ragans and Thompson have also made it to the Majors, with Ragans traded last week to Kansas City. The Rangers hope to snag another player with that kind of future in Sunday’s first round.

“We’ll find out in a few days,” Young said. “All drafts are different. You never know.”

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.

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