In keeping with the theme of wanting to shine a light on some of the underrated names in the Rangers farm system, let’s talk about Owen Proksch. Owen worked out of the bullpen at Duke during his freshman and sophomore years, but worked his way to the Friday night ace role in 2025. Proksch posted a 31.4% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate in that final season of his college career. Proksch was drafted in the 9th round of the 2025 MLB Draft, and signed for $200,000. He’s posted incredible numbers since debuting last August, with a 1.76 ERA in 46 innings across Hickory and Hub City.
Owen Proksch
LHP | 6’3” | 225 lb | Age: 22
Pitch Usage:
- Fastball: 44%
- Sweeper: 39%
- Changeup: 17%
Owen Proksch has utilized a three-pitch-mix during his time in the Rangers farm system. He throws a four-seam fastball that has gotten up to 94 while he was at Duke, but this season he’s averaged 90 and topped out at 92. It’s a two-plane shape at 14" of vertical break and 15" of arm-side run that he commands for strikes well and plays up due to his elite extension and command. Proksch is 6’3”, but he routinely gets over 7 feet of extension down the mound. These factors do help his fastball play at the top of the zone for whiffs, but the main strikeout offering Proksch has is his sweeper.
Proksch throws his sweeper about 39% of the time, and has no issues throwing it to either handedness of hitter. It averages 81 and tops out at 94. The most impressive aspect of it is how comfortable he is throwing it for strikes. It’s not just for show either, as he’s put up a very impressive zone-whiff% of 28% on his sweeper this year. Overall, he has a whiff rate of 40% on his sweeper in 2025. It’s a really impressive offering that is quite effective to both handedness of hitter.
Proksch rounds out his mix with a changeup. It sits about 84 and will top out at 86. He only throws it about 17% of the time, but with the deception his delivery creates it often times stymies right-handed hitters. He only throws his changeup about 7% of the time to left-handed hitters, but will throw it 23% of the time to right-handed hitters. He gets really good vertical break separation off his fastball, and has gotten arm-side run up to 20 inches on his changeup this year. He gets a whiff rate of 42% on his changeup, and his zone-specific whiff rate is at 26%.
I do think there’s an opportunity to increase his changeup usage to left-handed hitters simply because of how impressive the batted ball numbers are on his changeup, but I wouldn’t put it high up on the priority list due to how much trouble he gives left-handed hitters already. If there’s one thing I would want Owen Proksch to keep working on it’s his consistency in his delivery. Sometimes I see some disconnect between his upper and lower halves in that he can sometimes lag behind in his upper half which could lead to some more velocity gains if cleaned up, but I’m really nitpicking there because it’s hard to argue with the results Proksch has put up this year.
Proksch put up a 1.82 ERA across 24.2 innings in Hickory before earning the promotion to Hub City, where he’s arguably looked even better. Proksch allowed 3 runs in 2 innings in during the first week of the season after a fire in the opposing dugout in Hickory led to a small group of Rangers prospects making a surprise appearance for Hub City. He went back down to Hickory after that, but after an official promotion in the second-to-last week of June he’s been absolutely dominant in Spartanburg. Proksch has made 13 appearances since his promotion, and has allowed just 1 earned run in 19.1 innings. During that time he’s walked 6 batters and struck out 29. Funny enough, he’s actually been unlucky as well when it comes to batted ball events, as his BABIP with Hub City is above average at .362.
In his time at Hub City this season, Proksch has a strikeout rate of 34% with a walk rate of 8.5%. He had a cutter he used during his time at Duke and I’m sure down the line that’s something that can be re-introduced, but I think the main priorities for Owen Proksch right now are to clean up some of the inconsistencies that can manifest occasionally and during this offseason maybe looking into finding more of that velocity potential he showed in college. Like I said before however, it’s difficult to argue with the results Proksch has produced this season. I think he’s the best lefty reliever in the Rangers farm system, and I think he’s certainly a top 5 reliever overall on the farm with an argument that he’s pushing top 3.
