Evan Carter Leads Three Rangers in ESPN Top 100 Prospects
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ESPN.com recently ranked three Texas Rangers as Top 100 prospects entering the 2023 season.
This comes less than a week after MLB.com unveiled its Top 100 prospect list, which featured six different Rangers.
ESPN grades on the 20-80 scale for six different player tools, which is considered the industry standard. The three Rangers prospects that made the list all had at least a future value score of 50.
The three Rangers that made the list were outfielder Evan Carter, third baseman Josh Jung and pitcher Owen White.
Carter was the top-ranked Rangers prospect at No. 23 and fell into the tier of players with a future value grade of 55. ESPN called him an “on-base machine with plus speed” and has one of the lowest chase rates in minor-league baseball.
Carter was the Rangers’ second-round pick in 2020. He played just 32 games in 2021, but he built on those numbers in 2022.
Overall (he was also with the Rangers High Class-A affiliate in Hickory), he batted .295/.397/.489/.886 in 106 games (117-for-397), with 86 runs, 21 doubles, 10 triples, 12 home runs and 73 RBI. Carter was named Baseball America’s Rangers Prospect of the Year for 2022.
With Frisco, he batted .429/.536/.714/1.250 with a home runs and six RBI in seven games.
Jung, who has already made his Rangers debut, came in at No. 38 and also has a future value grade of 55. Jung was No. 19 on ESPN’s Top 100 preseason list last year before his injury and the story says he has “immediate MLB upside” since he’s expected to be the Rangers’ Opening Day third baseman.
Jung was expected to be the Opening Day third baseman last April, but an injury nearly ended his 2022 season. He tore a shoulder labrum during spring training, an injury the Rangers expected would cost him the season.
But, Jung progressed faster than expected and was able to speed through the minors before the Rangers called him up on Sept. 9.
Jung played in 26 games for the Rangers and batted .204/.235/.418/.653 with four doubles, one triple, five home runs and 14 RBI. He walked four times and struck out 39 times.
White is No. 87 and has a future value grade of 50. ESPN calls the right-handed pitcher a “plus athlete who is above average at everything.”
White was a second-round pick out of high school in 2018 who missed time due to Tommy John surgery. With Hickory and Frisco in 2022 he 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.
He promptly won the Texas League Pitcher of the Week award in his first start with Frisco 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.
Two other Rangers didn’t make the Top 100 but have future value scores of 50 and will be included on ESPN’s Top 30 prospect list to be released later this week — infielder Luisangel Acuña and infielder Jonathan Ornelas.
Pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training to the team’s facility in Surprise, Ariz., on Feb. 15, with position players to follow by Feb. 20.
The Spring Training game schedule starts on Feb. 24 with a game against Kansas City at the Surprise complex shared with the Royals.
The Rangers wrap up their exhibition season with a pair of games at Globe Life Field against the Royals on March 27 and 28. The Rangers open up the regular season at home against Philadelphia on March 30.
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