Can Brock Porter and Abi Ortiz Bounce Back in 2025?
The path of a prospect is rarely linear as guys learn how to work through struggles, league adjustments, higher levels of competition and the grind of a professional season. Two guys who certainly exemplify that for the Texas Rangers last year were Brock Porter and Abimelec Ortiz. After the 2023 season both of these guys were top 10 prospects in the Rangers farm system according multiple prospect lists but going into 2025 both of these guys are buried among guys often thought of as organizational filler. A farm system can’t be made or broken by a prospect or two but a bounce back from one or both of these guys would certainly be a positive development in 2025 for the Texas Rangers.
They say ‘There Is No Such Thing as a Pitching Prospect’ (TINSTAAPP for short) and the most recent example of this for the Rangers is undoubtedly Brock Porter. Texas snagged the top rated arm in the 2022 draft in a coup, getting him in the fourth round by paying well over slot. He was immediately slotted in the backend of the top 100 prospects in all of baseball and sent to low A for 2023. During that season he absolutely dominated striking out over 12 batters per 9 and logging a 2.47 ERA spanning 69.1 innings. Heading into 2024 he was ranked as the 88th best overall prospect by MLB.com and arguably the top arm in the Rangers system. Unfortunately that’s where all of the good news ends as Porter would make just three starts at high A Hickory in 2024 before being shut down and placed on the developmental list, a fairly infrequently used designation that basically means you’re not fit for game action. In those three starts his velocity was down considerably and his command was awful as nearly 38% of batters reached via either a walk or hit by pitch. Porter would spend the next couple of months working out at the Arizona complex and he wouldn’t re-emerge until late June but the results weren’t much better despite throwing against complex league talent. In five appearances spanning 11 innings, he walked 11 batters and hit another five. The speculation was that the organization’s attempt to overhaul Porter’s mechanics, which included a fairly noisy delivery, was the cause of his velocity drop and the complete loss of command. There have been encouraging reports as of late that mention he’s back to throwing 95-96 but it remains to be seen if the mechanical adjustments were successful or just scrapped entirely. He will certainly be a guy that will draw a fair amount of eye balls once spring training starts as scouts and fans see if he can command the strike zone and light up the radar gun.
While some prospects like Porter immediately step into the limelight after the draft, others like Abimelec Ortiz start in the shadows and toil away for years. Ortiz, a lefty who plays a mix of 1B and OF, signed as an undrafted free agent following the 2021 draft for a mere $20K. He spent the first year and a half following his signing putting up fairly pedestrian numbers bouncing between summer and winter leagues as well as low A Down East. Ortiz truly came into his own in 2023 though starting in low A again where he slashed 307/392/604 for 29 games before getting promoted to high A where he continued to mash to the tune of 290/363/624. All told he hit 33 home runs and drove in 101 runs in 109 games. Midway through that season FanGraphs listed him as the #9 overall prospect for the Rangers and wrote that “he’d at least be some kind of lefty platoon and had a chance to become an everyday first baseman.” By the end of the season he’d lead all Texas farm hands in homers and RBIs, win the Tom Grieve Player of the Year award and the South Atlantic League’s MVP. He’d also go on to the Arizona Fall League after the season and continue to turn heads slashing 314/460/600 but 2024 would not be so kind. Ortiz got assigned to AA Frisco out of spring training struggled for the first three months of the season slashing just 187/255/320. He bottomed out in May and June when he struck out struck out 43 times versus just 8 extra base hits and 9 walks in 62 games. Things started to turn around in July but when the updated FanGraphs list was released that month he’d plummeted to 34th where they concisely called him a “profile in distress.” To his credit though Ortiz finished the final three months of the year quite strong with a coveted 3/4/5 slash line while hitting 25 extra bases hits and 35 walks in 56 games. Given that he has a fairly limited defensive profile as primarily a 1B who can play RF in a pinch, Ortiz’s path to advancing will rely solely on his bat so he’ll need to continue to hit going forward.
While it’s highly unlikely that fans will see either of these guys in Arlington in 2025, they are names you should remember as bounce back seasons for both could go a long way to cementing themselves into future plans for your Texas Rangers.
