This Intriguing Texas Rangers Pitching Prospect Has Sleeper Potential

The Texas Rangers are looking for pitching anywhere they can get it, and one publication sees this right-hander as a prospect that could rise fast.

Matthew Postins | Feb 1, 2025

Jul 26, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; A hat and glove of a Texas Rangers player during a game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. / John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

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Texas Rangers

Down in the lower reaches of the Texas Rangers minor league system, there is a pitcher with an ERA so small one needs a microscope to see it.

The right-hander is a someone that Baseball America believes is the organization’s sleeper going into the 2025 season — David Davalillo.

One can be forgiven for not knowing the 22-year-old Venezuela native. For the past two seasons he’s pitched at the Arizona Complex League, Class-A Down East and High-A Hickory. That’s where young prospects cut their teeth.

Considered Davalillo’s razor sharp.

Last year with Hickory and Down East, he finished with an 8-2 record and a 2.04 ERA in 22 games (21 starts). He struck out 113 and walked 32 in 110.1 innings.

His numbers held steady after the promotion to Hickory, as his ERA was 2.10. It was just 1.79 at Down East. He pitched enough to qualify as the ERA leader across the minor leagues.

That built on his short stint with Down East in 2023, when he had a 1.93 ERA in 4.2 innings.

So what does he have that other pitchers don’t have?

According to Baseball America, it’s an effective split-changeup.

That pitch, according to their analytics, has a whiff rate of 58%. In other words, hitters swing and miss at it more than half the time.

Baseball America writer Josh Norris noted that Davalillo doesn’t have a plus-pitch, but his approach is already Major League-level, due in part to his father, who played pro baseball and was a minor league coach.

Right now, the site has Davalillo as the organizations’ No. 17 prospect. But, the belief is that he’ll make a case to earn promotion to Double-A Frisco, or even Triple-A Round Rock, by the end of this season.

His rise would be a good thing for the Rangers, as they expect to lose at least three pitching prospects to the Major League roster in starters Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter, along with reliever Marc Church. All three are among the team’s Top 30 prospects, but all have a case to make for inclusion on the opening-day roster.

Leiter made several starts with the Rangers last season. Rocker made a couple of starts late in the year after recovering from Tommy John surgery. Church was called up and pitched an inning during the season’s final weekend.

Perhaps Davalillo, at some point, will be next?

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