This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry’s Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
ARLINGTON -- Gavin Fien's temporary locker sat nestled between Corey Seager and Josh Jung in the clubhouse at Globe Life Field.
Fien, the Rangers’ first-round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, agreed to terms with the organization on Tuesday, and made his way to Arlington to make it official. It was almost right that he sat between Seager -- the franchise shortstop -- and Jung -- Texas’ 2019 first-rounder.
At 6-foot-3, the 18-year-old shortstop looked like he belonged as he stretched and took batting practice with the big league club on Tuesday afternoon.
“Words can’t describe the feeling, honestly,” Fien said. “It's hard to describe being an 18-year-old out of high school and what this means for me and my family, the hard work that I put in throughout the years and the grind. The ups and downs. To be a part of such a quality organization is just so incredible. It’s something I'll forever be grateful for.”
The Rangers selected Fien out of Great Oak (Calif.) High School, with the No. 12 overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft. He was committed to the University of Texas. Rangers director of amateur scouting Kip Fagg said he first heard about Fien from some of the scouts down in California about three or four years ago.
On Draft night a week ago, Fagg said that the makeup was what initially drew the Rangers to Fien when he was an underclassmen.
“[Area scout] Steve [Flores] said we're gonna stay on this guy,” Fagg recalled. “I think first and foremost, we found out the person when getting to know him, what kind of kid he is and knew what kind of drive he had, and determination he had. Plus the ability. I mean, we have a guy that we believe is a plus-power, plus-hit player who's going to defend and play both sides of the ball and be an offensive threat and have a chance to hit in the middle of your lineup. You can't access those guys a lot.”
Fien, MLB Pipeline’s No. 22 Draft prospect, also had a stellar summer of 2024 that put him among the top high school hitters in this year’s Draft class. He hit .400 with a 1.109 OPS for Team USA in the 18-and-under World Cup qualifier in Panama, then had two hits and two RBIs in the 2024 MLB High School All-American Game to win the MLB Develops MVP Award.
It was around that summer that Fien said the dream of being drafted slowly started to become a reality. It got even better his final high school season.
He hit .358 with five home runs, one triple, six doubles, 16 RBIs and more walks (11) than strikeouts (9) over 30 games as a senior for Great Oak High School in Temecula, Calif., this spring. Over four varsity seasons with the Wolfpack from 2022-25, he slashed .378/.451/.633/1.084 with 12 home runs, four triples, 29 doubles and 65 RBIs across 91 total games.
“Every year we talk about what we look for as an organization,” said president of baseball operations Chris Young. “It’s not just talented players, but winning-type players who would really embody the core values that we think leads to championship-style players. We were very fortunate to land Gavin, who we feel like he embodies every single thing that we look for in a player, from the competitive spirit, the love of the game, the teammate that he is, but certainly the talent that he is as well.”