The Texas Rangers released all of the break camp rosters for their full-season minor league affiliates. The Frisco Roughriders 28-man roster includes sixteen pitchers, three catchers, five infielders, and four outfielders. There are a handful of surprises that I see on the Roughriders roster.
Zak Kent was supposed to be returned to Frisco after spending parts of the last two seasons with AAA Round Rock. He was placed on the Frisco roster yesterday. He was first promoted to Round Rock late in the 2022 season where he did very well in five starts at the end of the season. He put together an outstanding ERA of 1.67 in those five games in Round Rock in 2022.
Last year Kent spent the better part of the season recovering from a stubborn oblique strain. He was able to make ten starts for Round Rock in 2023 and put together a 3.97 ERA. After the one start at the beginning of the season, the other nine came at the end of the season. He was kept on a short leash due to the earlier injury in those late season starts. Most of them were between three and four innings.
It was a surprise that he was assigned to Frisco. He was a very early cut from the major league camp a few weeks ago. I guess the struggles that he showed there were significant enough that the Rangers decided to get his attention by sending him back to Frisco. Today we learn that Kent has been traded to Cleveland for international bonus pool money. That seems like a strange move for a team that is short of starting pitching depth. There must have been something about him this spring that they really didn’t like.
Aaron Zavala is also repeating the AA level. After the 2022 season Zavala reported to the Arizona Fall League. After a short time there, it was reported that he had a partial tear in his UCL. That required him to miss several weeks at the beginning of the 2023 season.
He did very well in Frisco in 2022, but not well at all when he returned last year after recovering from his injury. Even still, he has had 565 plate appearances in both seasons combined in Frisco. I was thinking that they would send him on to Round Rock this season.
Dane Acker returns to Frisco after starting twelve games last year there. He had an ERA of only 2.74 in those twelve starts with 51 strikeouts in 46 innings. It isn’t a surprise that he is returning, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he got an early promotion to Round Rock.
Josh Stephan has been assigned to Frisco despite only getting 11 starts in Hickory last year. He put up a fabulous ERA of 2.17 in Hickory last year. It will be interesting to see if he can be anywhere near that dominant at the AA level this year. He is definitely a Roughrider to keep an eye on this season.
Emiliano Teodo has been assigned to Frisco as well. He struggled for a lot of last season in Hickory, but really flourished in the Arizona Fall League. The only question is will the Rangers keep Teodo as a starter or will they go ahead and transition him into a reliever.
Abimilec Ortiz playing for Frisco this year is no surprise. He definitely conquered both levels of A-ball last year. He will be fun to watch this year as he attempts to conquer AA as well. He slashed .294/.371/.619 last year. He has shot up the Rangers’ prospect rankings since then. He has recently been ranked at #5 on ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel’s top Rangers’ prospects list. Keith Law has him at #13. Evan Grant has him at #15. The Prospect Times recently ranked him #12.
PITCHERS
Dane Acker
Robby Ahlstrom
Aidan Anderson
Reid Birlingmair
Ricky DeVito
Ryan Garcia
Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa
Steven Jennings
Nick Karuth
Tyler Owens
Andy Rodriguez
Josh Stephan
Emiliano Teodo
Avery Weems
Grant Wolfram
CATCHERS
Liam Hicks
Cooper Johnson
Scott Kapers
INFIELDERS
Maximo Acosta
Frainyer Chavez
Alex De Goti
Cody Freeman
Abimilec Ortiz
OUTFIELDERS
Geisel Cepeda
Josh Hatcher
Kellen Strahm
Aaron Zavala
