Rangers gear up for 2025 Draft with 'pretty deep class'

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 -- Rangers director of amateur scouting Kip Fagg has done this song and dance a million times before.

In his 33rd season with the club and his 11th at his current position, Fagg and his brigade of scouts across the country are once again tasked with finding the best amateur players for the Rangers organization.

A week from today, that first pick will have been made. Fagg is feeling as good as ever going into this one.

“I think, as a Draft, it's a pretty deep class,” Fagg said. “Actually, I'm kind of excited about the depth of it. Up top is a little -- I wouldn't say blurry -- but I think not as solidified as past years. I don't think it's a bad thing. I think there's still good players there, and there's good players all through this Draft. We're excited about the depth of it."

MLB Pipeline’s most recent mock draft has the Rangers selecting Daniel Pierce, a shortstop out of Mill Creek (Ga.) High School who is ranked No. 13 in the Draft Top 250. But Pipeline also notes other position players like fellow prep shortstop JoJo Parker, Auburn outfielder/catcher Ike Irish and prep third baseman Gavin Fien could be within consideration.

All of those players are ranked between 9-21 on Pipeline’s Draft Top 250.

Because of where they’re picking -- right smack in the middle -- the Rangers' scouting was much further ranging than it’s maybe been the last few years, when they were either top five or dead last at No. 30.

• Day 1 picks: Nos. 12, 52, 84
• Bonus pool allotment: $10,991,300 (16th in MLB)
• Last year’s top pick: Malcolm Moore, C, No. 30 ... Moore, the Rangers' No. 2 prospect, spent two months on the injured list with a broken finger on his throwing hand due to a foul tip. Through his first nine games with High-A Hub City before the injury, he was batting .267 with a .463 on-base percentage. Moore's offensive profile has been his calling card since he was a high school prospect. Though he hasn’t yet displayed it in pro ball, he has the ability to hit for both average and power, while also maintaining a good feel for the strike zone.
• Breakout 2024 pick: Devin Fitz-Gerald, SS, 5th round ... A switch-hitting shortstop, the Rangers lured Fitz-Gerald away from an NC State commitment with an overslot $900,000 bonus. He raked through 31 games of Rookie ball early this season with a .318/.423/.542, earning a promotion to Single-A Hickory. He’s hit just .250, but accumulated a.442 on-base percentage in 10 games.

“Obviously, this year was different,” Kipp said. “I think there was a little more separation up top last year's Draft. So maybe there were certain guys I didn't see as much. We pretty much scouted everyone in this Draft, even the guys that are predicted to go up top if you look at any of the mocks. We all saw them, so we did a full scope this year, for sure, more so than probably last year.”

The Rangers have selected college players in the Draft for the past five years: Josh Jung out of Texas Tech in 2019, Justin Foscue from Mississippi State in ‘20, Jack Leiter out of Vanderbilt in ‘21, Kumar Rocker from Vandy in ‘22, Wyatt Langford from Florida in ‘23 and Malcolm Moore out of Stanford in ‘24.

Five of those players came within the top 15 selections, with all but Foscue coming in the top 10. Moore came at pick No. 30 the year after Texas won the World Series.

That being said, the first-round this season features a plethora of high school bats, including six prep shortstops projected in the top 15. The crop of college bats is dramatically lighter than usual. But does that affect the Rangers’ pick?

Not necessarily.

“Yes, one of the strengths of this Draft is probably the high school middle infielders,” Fagg said. “There's a lot of them. We have a lot of opinions on these guys, and we sort of worked through a lot of them. I’m not saying we're taking a high school shortstop, but it's one of the strengths of this Draft, for sure.

“The past few years we've taken college players. I guess I can't refute that. But it's not like we're sitting saying that we're taking a college guy. Even the times we took college guys, there were still high school guys we considered. Some went ahead of us, and some we let go past. So I can't sit here and say that we're a college first round drafting team. That's just the way it's worked out.”

The 2025 MLB Draft will take place from July 13-14 in Atlanta. MLB Network and ESPN will provide live coverage of the Draft's opening night beginning at 6 p.m. ET. Coverage of Day 2 of the Draft -- consisting of rounds 4 through 20 on July 14 -- will be streamed on MLB.com beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET.