Rangers Top 30 Prospect Wraps: Anthony Gutierrez

Anthony Gutierrez just wrapped up his first season of professional baseball in the Texas Rangers organization.

InsidetheRangers.com will review each of the Texas Rangers’ Top 30 prospects, as ranked by MLB.com at the end of the 2022 season.

No. 12: OF Anthony Gutierrez, Arizona Complex League Rangers

Statistics for 2022: He played 45 games with 172 at-bats. He scored 35 runs, had 53 hits, 82 total bases, 13 doubles, two triples, four home runs and 24 RBI. He walked 11 times, struck out 34 times, stole 11 bases and was caught stealing six times. He batted .308/.358/.477/.835.

Season Transactions: On April 3 he was assigned to the Dominican Summer League Texas Blue Team. On June 4 he was assigned to the Dominican Summer League Texas Red team. On July 11 he was assigned to the Arizona Complex League Rangers, which is their rookie league team.

Season Summary: Gutierrez evenly split his time between the DSL Red team and the ACL Rangers. With the DSL team he put up better batting numbers — .352/.408/.538/.946 — which makes sense, given that he’s been training in the Dominican Republic and was likely more comfortable with the surroundings. With the ACL Rangers, the batting slash dropped to .259/.299/.407/.706. That came in 10 fewer at-bats than in the Dominican Republic.

Journey Through the Organization: Gutierrez nearly ended up in the Washington Nationals organization. The Venezuelan-born player was intending to wait until 2023 to sign any contract after moving to the Dominican Republic to train and the famed Amaurys Nina Academy. But he changed his mind, took the near-$2 million offer from the Rangers in January and, at age 17, began his professional baseball journey.

What’s next: Winter ball in the Dominican Republic seems a likely possibility for a player that hasn’t turned 18 yet and is projected as a 2026 Major Leaguer by MLB.com. The logical progression for him in 2023 is to move from the ACL Rookie League to Low Class-A Down East.

2022 Texas Rangers Top 30 Prospect Wraps:

No. 30: Josh Stephan | No. 29: Mason Englert | No. 28: Marc Church | No. 27: Danyer Cueva | No. 26: Alejandro Osuna | No. 25: Zak Kent | No. 24: Dane Acker | No. 23: Avery Weems | No. 22: Emiliano Teodo | No. 21: Jonathan Ornelas | No. 20: Gleider Figuereo | No. 19: Thomas Saggese | No. 18: Maximo Acosta | No. 17: Mitch Bratt | No. 16: Ricky Vanasco | No. 15: Yeison Morrobel | No. 14: Tekoah Roby | No. 13: Antoine Kelly |

---

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

Catch up with Inside the Rangers on Facebook and Twitter.