Rangers Snag Future Starting Pitcher in First MLB Mock Draft for 2026

The Texas Rangers know when they’ll be picking in the 2026 MLB draft, but they don’t know who they’ll be selecting yet.

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The Texas Rangers have had some luck lately with college-age pitchers in the first round of the MLB draft.

Texas selected Vanderbilt products in back-to-back drafts in the first round. First, in 2021, the Rangers selected Jack Leiter No. 2 overall. He made the opening day rotation in 2025 and emerged as the rotation’s No. 3 starter behind Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi. In 2022, Texas selected Kumar Rocker No. 3 overall. He was slowed by Tommy John surgery in 2023 but made his MLB debut in 2024. Last season he struggled with consistency and ended the season in the minor leagues.

After this week’s MLB Draft lottery, the Rangers ended up with the No. 16 overall pick in next July’s MLB draft. MLB Pipeline published its first mock draft and the Rangers ended up with UC Santa Barbara right-hander Jackson Flora.

Jackson Flora’s College Career

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Flora is coming off a 6-3 season in 2025 in which he went 6-3 with a 3.60 ERA, including 86 strikeouts and 17 walks in 75 innings. He finished the season as an All-Big West first-team selection and was named the CBWA National Pitcher of the Week and Big West Pitcher of the Week after he threw his first career complete game shutout against Cal Poly on April 19.

As a freshman he earned All-Big West honorable mention selection after he went 3-2 with a 4.60 ERA as he struck out 40 and walked 25 in 40 innings. He’s played in collegiate summer leagues of the last two years and spent last summer in USA Baseball Collegiate National Team Training Camp.

The right-hander was the top college age pitcher selected in the mock. MLB Pipeline noted that if he earned that distinction, he would be the third UC Santa Barbara pitcher to be the top college pitcher taken in the last 12 years, along with Dillon Tate (2015) and Tyler Bremner (2025). The Rangers selected Tate, but he was traded a year later to the New York Yankees as the Rangers acquired Carlos Beltran in a deadline deal.

Rangers Recent Drafts

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The Rangers took their first high school player in the first round since 2018 last July when they selected shortstop Gavin Fien out of Great Oak High School in Temecula, Calif. The last prep player drafted by Texas was current relief pitcher Cole Winn, a prep pitcher out of Lutheran High School in Orange, Calif.

In between, Texas had selected seven straight college players, including two in 2019 when they had a compensatory pick. All but two of them has played for the Rangers in the Majors, that being 2019 compensatory pick Davis Wendzel out of Baylor. He was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in 2024 and has yet to play in the Majors.

Along with Leiter and Rocker, starting third baseman Josh Jung was selected in the first round in 2019 and starting left fielder Wyatt Langford was selected in 2023. Infielder Justin Foscue, their 2020 first-round pick, has been up-and-down between the Majors and Triple-A.

Texas’ 2024 first-round pick, catcher Malcolm Moore out of Stanford, has struggled in the minors and was unable to capitalize on additional at-bats in the Arizona Fall League.