Rangers Name July Minor League Awards

Texas named one of its most recent call-ups the system's defensive player of the month, while awarding players from Hickory and Down East.

Current Texas Rangers outfielder Bubba Thompson led the organization’s minor league award-winning players for July, which were announced Thursday.

Thompson, who made his MLB debut last week, is the Defender of the Month for his work at Triple-A Round Rock. In the field, Thompson played all three outfield positions for the Express, had a 1.000 fielding percentage and had a 25-game errorless streak before his call-up. Thompson is a former first-round pick for the Rangers in 2017. He’s steadily started for the Rangers in left field since his call-up.

The organization’s Player of the Month was High Class-A Hickory infielder Thomas Saggese, who batted .377/.410/.662/1.072 with five home runs, five doubles, a triple and 19 RBI in 19 games for the Crawdads. He led the South Atlantic League in batting average for July. His season batting numbers are .309/.358/.497/.855 with 13 home runs and 53 RBI entering Thursday’s action.

The Starting Pitcher of the Month was Low Class-A Down East’s Mitch Bratt. He went 3-1 with 1.96 ERA, giving up six walks and striking out 23 in four starts. The 19-year-old threw five shutout innings in three consecutive starts and had a career-high nine strikeouts on July 2. He is 4-3 with a 2.35 ERA for the season and has a rate of 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings. He’s the youngest player in the SAL.

The Reliever of the Month was Hickory’s Theo McDowell. The right-hander threw 10 2/3 scoreless innings in eight appearances in July. He held opponents to a .114 batting average and struck out 11, walked three and didn’t give up an extra-base hit. For the season he’s 5-2 with a 2.75 ERA with 49 strikeouts in 31 appearances. He started the season with Down East.

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