Former Two-Sport Star Seen as Rangers’ Top Breakout Prospect for 2026

The Texas Rangers have a pitcher in the lower reaches of their minor league system that could take a big jump in 2026.

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

The Texas Rangers took some criticism for their trade to acquire pitcher Merrill Kelly at the deadline last July.

To acquire the veteran for two months, the Rangers gave up three Top 15 pitching prospects —Kohl Drake, Mitch Bratt and David Hagaman. It was a steep price to pay for a pitcher who ultimately went back to the team that traded him, the Arizona Diamondbacks, on a two-year contract earlier this month.

So, the Rangers need prospects to fill in that gap. One is David Davalillo, who had an incredible 2025 and was named the franchise’s winner of the Nolan Ryan pitcher of the year award. But one won’t be enough. Texas needs more. That’s where Caden Scarborough comes in.

Recently, MLB.com unveiled its prediction for the top breakthrough prospect for each team in 2026. For the Rangers, the site selected Scarborough, their sixth-round pick in 2023, as the player most primed to make a big jump.

About Caden Scarborough

Caden Scarborough from May-September this season:

282 BF
73.1 IP
96 Strikeouts
15 Walks
43 Hits Allowed
17 Earned Runs

Sub-1.00 WHIP in every month after April

0.64 WHIP in the 2nd half

The Rangers No. 8 prospect is one of the most underrated pitching prospects in baseball! pic.twitter.com/t7uE7w7Pxk

— Tobey Schulman (@tschulmanreport) November 30, 2025

The Rangers weren’t put off by the fact that Scarborough played two sports at Harmony (Fla.) High School, as he was a well-regarded basketball player, too. Texas selected him with the No. 171 overall pick and paid him an above-slot bonus of $515,000 to get him to start playing pro baseball at 18 years old instead of playing college baseball at Dallas Baptist.

In high school, he went 1-1 with a 2.19 ERA and 70 strikeouts across 38 1/3 innings. The 6-foot-5, 190-pound right-handed pitcher led the Longhorns to the 2023 Orange Belt Conference Championship and was named an Orlando Sentinel All-Area honorable mention.

The Rangers didn’t pitch him in 2023, and he only got six games in for 2024, thanks to a strained lat. In that small sample in the Arizona Complex League and Class-A Down East, he went 2-1 with a 6.97 ERA, with 13 strikeouts and nine walks in 10.1 innings.

In 2025 with Class-A Hickory and High-A Hub City, his overall record was 2-5 but everything flipped. He trimmed the ERA to 2.45 in 22 games (21 starts), with 114 strikeouts and 21 walks in 88 innings. Batters hit just .181 against him. He also had a 0.88 WHIP.

Per MLB.com, his fastball now sits in the 92-97 mph range, and he’s crafted a slider that runs in the low-80s. Their scouts anticipate with his 6-foot-5 frame and his already-solid mechanics that he could have a live fastball when he hits the Majors.

When could that be? The Rangers don’t like to push prospects, but with his progress in 2025 there is potential he could end 2026 with a cup of coffee at Triple-A Round Rock, assuming he starts the season at Double-A Frisco and shows success at that level.