Rangers Top 30 Prospect Wraps: Ricky Vanasco

Largely forgotten after Tommy John surgery, Ricky Vanasco just wrapped up his first full year pitching since 2019.

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. 16: Ricky Vanasco, High Class-A Hickory Crawdads and Double-A Frisco RoughRiders (on Rangers 40-man roster)

Statistics for 2022: Vanasco went 3-5 with a 4.68 ERA. He made 23 appearances, all starts, pitching 92 1/3 innings. He gave up 89 hits, 53 runs (48 earned), 14 home runs and 52 walks. He struck out 118. He had a 1.42 WHIP.

Season Transactions: The Rangers optioned Vanasco to Double-A Frisco on March 21. He was called up to Triple-A Round Rock later in 2022.

Season Summary: Vanasco is just getting back on the mound after Tommy John Surgery so a full season with Hickory and a late promotion to Frisco represent good progress for the 24-year-old. He worked four games at Hickory without giving up a run. After moving to Frisco, he allowed eight runs in eight innings, but he at least got to be on the periphery of the RoughRiders’ run to the Texas League title.

Path Through the Organization: The Rangers drafted Vanasco out of high school in the 15th round of the 2017 MLB Draft and gave him a $200,000 signing bonus. His best minor league season was in 2019 when he had 1.81 ERA and 75 strikeouts in 49 2/3 innings in the lower levels of the Rangers’ organization. But Tommy John surgery put his career to a halt at the end of 2020. Still, the Rangers thought enough of Vanasco to put him on their 40-man roster at the end of the 2021 season in an effort to protect him from the Rule V Draft.

What’s next: Vanasco had not pitched above Class-A before he was promoted to Frisco in September. Next season he’s likely to start the year at Frisco as the Rangers watch is pitch velocity. Many players take a significant jump in their second year pitching after Tommy John surgery. Vanasco bears monitoring in 2023.

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

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