Rangers Top 30 Prospect Wraps: Owen White

Owen White was drafted out of high school, had Tommy John surgery and is now rocketing through the 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. 4: P Owen White, Frisco RoughRiders (Double-A)

Statistics for 2022: White went 9-2 with a 3.59 ERA in 15 appearances (14 starts). He threw 80 1/3 innings, giving up 70 hits, 33 runs (32 earned), eight home runs and 23 walks. He struck out 104. Batters hit .233 against him and he had a 1.16 WHIP.

Season Transactions: White started the season with the High Class-A Hickory Crawdads. On June 23 he was promoted to Frisco. He spent July 26-Sept. 22 on the injury list and returned to help the RoughRiders win the Texas League title.

Season Summary: White looks like he’s on a rocket ship right now. He went 6-2 at High Class-A Hickory to start the season. He left the Rangers little choice but to call him up in late June. He promptly won the Texas League Pitcher of the Week award in his first start and finished the regular season 3-0 with a 2.49 ERA in four starts. He ended the regular season with six straight strikeouts for the RoughRiders. Everything he did in Hickory translated to Frisco, even though he missed nearly two months with an injury. But with his talent, you want to avoid a major injury.

Path Through the Organization: The Rangers drafted him out of high school in 2018 and paid $1.5 million to sign the second-round pick. He played three different sports in high school and was good enough as a quarterback to draw college interest. Less than a year after the draft he was under the knife, having Tommy John surgery, like several other Rangers prospects. Then, after finally getting healthy, he broke his hand in his 2021 professional debut after slamming it to the ground after making an error. You certainly love the intensity, but it did slow his development down, but only slightly. He ended the season at Low Class-A Down East with three straight double-digit strikeout games, and then went to the Arizona Fall League and came away with pitcher of the year honors.

What’s next: How White pitches in spring training will determine if he starts next season at Frisco or Triple-A Round Rock. But he’s one of the many pieces in this deep and talented minor-league system, the one that new Rangers manager Bruce Bochy spoke about. If White continues to pitch like he has the past two seasons, he won’t be a prospect much longer.

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 | No. 12: Anthony Gutierrez | No. 11: Aaron Zavala | No. 10 Cole Winn | No. 9: Dustin Harris | No. 8: Kumar Rocker | No. 7: Luisangel Acuna | No. 6: Brock Porter | No. 5: Justin Foscue

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