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Tuesday newsletter time: The door to center field might be open, just not for this player

(Texas Rangers/Ben Ludeman)

 

 

 

Leody Taveras might have enough time to get ready for Opening Day.

He came to camp in wonderful shape, manager Bruce Bochy said, and had been playing well after an offseason without winter ball in the Dominican Republic.

This mild oblique strain, might have happened early enough in camp for Taveras to still have time to get up to speed by the March 30 opener if he’s ready to go after the prescribed rest of seven to 10 days.

The Rangers, though, are preparing for someone else to be in center field for the season opener. Bubba Thompson, Adolis Garcia, Travis Jankowski and Ezequiel Duran are candidates.

Bochy, though, put to rest any speculation that Evan Carter is a serious candidate.

“I’d say it’s a long shot,” Bochy said. “I would think that for him to be a true option it would have to be even thinner than it is now.”

It makes complete and total sense, of course. Carter has barely played at Double A. The toughest jump is from High A to Double A, so he needs more time in Frisco before he can be considered a candidate.

But that doesn’t mean the Rangers don’t want Carter thinking he has a chance.

“He’s getting a lot of playing time, and, sure, he’s thinking, ‘Hey, I’m going to do all I can to open up eyes and have a chance to make this club,'” Bochy said. “You don’t want to break that spirit.”

MLB Pipeline top 30

Six Rangers prospects are in the MLB Pipeline top 100, which was revealed in late January. On Monday, the MLB Pipeline released its ranking of the top 30 Rangers prospects.

Josh Jung is rated No. 1, followed by Carter, Owen White, Luisangel Acuna and Jack Leiter. Brock Porter, Justin Foscue, Dustin Harris, Aaron Zavala and Kumar Rocker round out the top 10.

Some rankings of interest:

TK Roby is ranked No. 12 after being ranked No. 28 by Baseball America, for whom I am a contributor but did not contribute to its Rangers top 30. The Rangers believe Roby is one of their elite pitching prospects. He’s two spots ahead of Cole Winn, who the club also believes is in that upper group.

Sebastian Walcott, the prize of the 2023 international class, lands at No. 15.

One to watch this season is right-hander Dane Acker, who was unranked by BA but lands at No. 23 in the MLB Pipeline rankings. He impressed over the offseason and continues to impress this spring as an early arrival to minor-league camp.

He has agreed to join the Rangers Today Baseball Podcast for one of the next two episodes from Surprise.

Rangers Today reminders

The Rangers Today crew will be in the air Wednesday morning, headed to Surprise. The hope is to be there in time for Jacob deGrom to face hitters and check in on the big-leaguers before they have their first off day of camp Thursday.

The coverage hasn’t stopped from Texas and will intensify this week from Arizona, so let that serve as your weekly friendly reminder to get full access to Rangers Today. The cost is $5.99 a month, $35 for six months or $60 for a year. You can subscribe or upgrade your free account here.

John Moore and I will be shooting at least one episode of the Rangers Today Baseball Podcast from Arizona. We had a planning meeting last week with our marketing strategist. Maybe it was the margaritas, but she sees some serious opportunities for Rangers Today to grow the channel. One of them is here.

It’s free to subscribe to the channel, which you can do here.

Rangers Today has three contributors you should follow on social media:

Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Follow John Moore on Twitter and the podcast Twitter account.

T.R. Sullivan has Twitter, too.

A final (very important) reminder: Rangers Today is seeking sponsors for the podcast and the website. There are several different opportunities to help your business grow. Drop me an email at jeff@rangerstoday.com.

As always, thanks for your support.

 

Doggy video!

Dog did nothing wrong here. Enjoy.

 

Jeff Wilson, jeff@rangerstoday.com

Jeff Wilson

Sports reporter for two decades. Sports fan for life. Covers the Texas Rangers. Graduate of TCU. Colorado native. Author of Purple Passion: TCU Football Legends (https://t.co/2fmXLyympx). Follow me on Twitter at @JeffWilsonTXR

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2 Comments

  1. deGrom Texas Ranger March 7, 2023

    What does the subscription give me access to that the free account doesn’t?

    Reply
    1. Jeff Wilson March 7, 2023

      Friday on the Farm, the Sunday Read, T.R.’s Memoirs, all news stories, features and columns.

      Reply

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