Texas Rangers: 2018 minor league awards

The Texas Rangers found themselves at the bottom of a suddenly very competitive division in 2018. A number of young players began to emerge in 2018, and more could be on the way soon!

As part of our continuing coverage at Call to the Pen of the minor leagues, we will be covering each organization’s top players for 2018. The coverage will go in reverse order of record. Today, we will look at the Texas Rangers.

We are going to review the system’s leaders for each organization statistically, then choose one hitter and one pitcher to honor for every team. This will be primarily based on statistical performance, though some “age relative to level” could come into play, so a very impressive season from a 28-year-old in AA will rank below a nearly as impressive season from a 20-year-old at the same level.

After we review each organization’s hitter and pitcher of the year, we will close out October with Call To The Pen’s Minor League team of the year. That will lead into November starting our team top 10 prospect lists. In other words, there will be plenty of minor league content on the way at CTTP, so keep coming back for more each day this offseason!!

Texas Rangers minor leagues

Long known for their proficiency to take high-ceiling players in the draft and their established presence in Latin America, the Texas Rangers farm system tends to behave the way a system full of high-ceiling players would – ebbing and flowing based on the failure rate of those high-ceiling players, but when they do hit on a player, he hits big!

The Rangers attempted to patch pitching together this year, but they found that did not work, and they’re likely going to see a number of young arms filter into the rotation and bullpen in 2019 as they begin to work into at least a re-tooling time, if not a full-on rebuild.

Before we offer up awards on the season, let’s take a look at the system’s statistical leaders:

Organization Leaders (min. 150 PA, 50 IP)

BA: Diosbel Arias .366
OBP: Heriberto Hernandez .464
SLG: Heriberto Hernandez .635
OPS: Heriberto Hernandez 1.099
R: Anderson Tejeda 76
H: Scott Heineman 137
2B: Willie Calhoun 32
3B: Leody Taveras and Eric Jenkins 7
HR: Tommy Joseph 21
RBI: Anderson Tejeda 74
SB: Yonny Hernandez 46
TB: Anderson Tejeda 205

W: Tyler Phillips 12
G: Reed Garrett 51
GS: Emerson Martinez 24
IP: Emerson Martinez 137
SV: R.J. Alvarez 24
K: A.J. Alexy 138
ERA: Martin Buitimea 1.06
WHIP: Ronny Henriquez 0.78
K/9: Demarcus Evans 16.6
K/BB: Yerry Rodriguez 10.25

Texas Rangers Minor League Pitcher of the Year: Demarcus Evans

Level(s): low-A Hickory
Stats: 4-1, 35 G, 56 IP, 9 SV, 1.77 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 27/103 BB/K

A hard-throwing righty out of high school in Mississippi, the Texas Rangers drafted Evans in the 25th round in 2015 and spend multiple years attempting to work with him as a starter. In 2018, he was moved to the bullpen, and the results were incredible!

Primarily working off of three grips on his fastball, Evans essentially threw hard always, eschewing his secondary stuff out of the bullpen this year, and hitters simply could not handle him. Evans still needs to work in a consistent secondary pitch, but with hitters having no ability to touch his stuff.

It’s rare to see a reliever earn the top pitcher honor, and there is plenty of competition within the Rangers system, but Evans was more than worthy of the selection!

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Runners-up

The Texas Rangers selected Tyler Phillips in the 16th round of the 2015 draft out of New Jersey. The 6’5″ righty has slowly worked his way up the Rangers farm system step by step. In 2018, that step was Phillips’ first full-season league, where he made 23 starts and tossed 133 innings for Hickory and Down East, posting a 2.64 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, and an impressive 16/127 BB/K ratio.

A small (5’10”, 155 pounds) righty from the Dominican Republic made his debut for the Texas Rangers in the Dominican Summer League in 2018. For Ronny Henriquez, that debut could not have gone much better. He threw 58 innings, posting a 1.55 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, and an insane 8/79 BB/K ratio. He will be likely brought stateside in 2019.

One of the most dynamic arms in the 2017 draft, Hans Crouse was plucked by the Rangers in the 2nd round. After tossing 20 innings in his draft season, he opened the 2018 season with Spokane in the Northwest League before finishing with a handful of starts with low-A Hickory. He made 13 starts, tossing 54 2/3 innings, allowing a 2.47 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and a 19/62 BB/K ratio.

After a pair of seasons in the Dominican Summer League, Yerry Rodriguez came stateside in 2018. He opened with the Arizona Rookie League before working his way up to Spokane in the Northwest League. He tallied 12 games, 10 of them starts, tossing 63 innings, with a 2.86 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, and an impressive 8/82 BB/K ratio.

Texas Rangers fans certainly struggled through the 2018 season at the major league level, but there are plenty of things to be happy for and look forward to in the future out of the farm system.