Texas Rangers Unheralded Pitching Prospect Continues To Dominate Lower Minor Leagues

Keep an eye on this Texas Rangers pitching prospect pushing for a promotion.

Jul 26, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; The hat and glove of Texas Rangers fielder Leody Taveras (3) during a game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. | John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

The Texas Rangers' pitching staff at the Major League level has been turning heads with its performance during the 2025 MLB regular season.

Nathan Eovaldi, Jacob deGrom and Tyler Mahle are doing everything in their power to keep the team afloat, throwing gem after gem every time they take the mound.

If the team’s offense can ever get on track, the Rangers will start to move up the standings in the American League behind that three-headed starting pitching monster. 

All of them are pitching at an All-Star level and would be in the running for spots on the All-MLB Team and be on Cy Young ballots had the season ended today.

While those three hold things down in the Big Leagues for now, there are some people within the organization who are thinking about the franchise’s future, when they will have to move on from those three.

Optimism still exists for Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter, who have provided mixed results in their Major League careers to this point. But they are incredibly talented pitchers who deserve some more time to develop.

In their minor league system, Texas has some emerging stars in the lower levels that are going to start garnering some real attention.

Rangers Pitching Prospect David Davalillo Has Been Unhittable

One of them is starting pitcher David Davalillo.

Currently, the No. 29 ranked Rangers prospect, he signed with the team out of Venezuela in 2022 for only $10,000. It certainly looks like a worthwhile investment at this point, as he is blowing away opponents.

It has led to Jonathan Mayo, Jim Callis and Sam Dykstra of MLB.com highlighting Davalillo as the team’s hottest pitching prospect in May, behind a dominant splitter that opposing hitters just cannot figure out.

“After leading the Minors with a 1.88 ERA last year, Davalillo is doing so again with a 0.92 mark, as well as ranking first with a 0.71 WHIP. He has allowed just two runs with a 29/2 K/BB ratio in his last 23 innings in High-A, continuing to confound hitters with his low-80s splitter,” they wrote.

The overall numbers for Dovalillo are something out of a video game.

He has thrown 39.1 innings, allowing only 21 hits and seven walks, resulting in five runs being scored, only four of which were earned. 55 strikeouts have been recorded already.

It doesn’t seem like long until he is facing a new challenge at Double-A, looking more than ready for a promotion with his dominance thus far at High-A Hub City.