Friday on the Farm: Five offseason developments that have Texas Rangers' system on right track for spring training
Players will hear a streamlined message this season that will be repeated throughout their rise to the majors.
Aside from being highly regarded prospects in the Texas Rangers farm system and probably all the hip stuff whippersnappers are into these days, Josh Jung, Jack Leiter, Cole Winn and on down the line have one thing in common.
None of them was alive the last time there was an MLB work stoppage.
That might make a good deal of Texas Rangers Newsletter subscribers feel old.
One other commonality: The current stoppage, a lockout imposed by ownership, doesn’t affect them at all.
Minor-league baseball is full steam ahead this offseason, and only prospects who are on the 40-man roster are prevented from being in contact with club officials. That’s a decent chunk of top Rangers prospects, but it’s not like they’re just sitting at home eating potato chips.
Sam Huff, for instance, has been working out all over Tarrant County.
The rest of the minor-leaguers are moving along quite smoothly. Owen White might have had the best offseason of all, blossoming into the Arizona Fall League Pitcher of the Year and then getting engaged.
A team moving toward the end its rebuilding phase needs its farm system to keep developing, and the Rangers are seeing that..
Here are five non-Owen White areas where things appear to be moving in the right direction as prospects head toward minor-league camp in early March or, for some, big-league camp TBA.