Alejandro Rosario doesn’t exactly strike me as a bright future star based on his body of work at the University of Miami.
He has a 7.05 ERA and a 2-3 record in 2022 with the Hurricanes. He then had a 7.11 ERA and a 5-6 record the previous season. Over his three years in college, he had an ERA of 6.53 and a record of 12-13.
Nevertheless, MLB Pipeline reports that he is the team’s top prospect rising quicker than any of the other Top 30 players, having been taken by the Texas Rangers in the fifth round of the previous draft.
The infielder Sebastian Walcott, the top prospect for the Rangers, is expected to be included in the site’s upcoming Top 100 prospects update.
Most likely, Rosario won’t be. Despite pitching in his first professional season, he’s already pounding on doors at No.
He began the season at Class-A Down East and is currently playing with Walcott at High-A Hickory. Rosario is 3-4 on the season and has pitched 77 2/3 innings with a 2.43 ERA. He has an astounding strikeout-to-walk ratio. With 12 walks, he has fanned 114 batters.
What then has driven his ascent? Despite his dismal collegiate stats, the Rangers saw in him a pitcher they could work with. Analysts on MLB Pipeline observed that Texas assisted Rosario in honing his delivery and pitch selection.
The right-hander now owns a fastball that routinely reaches the mid-90s and has the ability to reach triple digits. He also possesses a tight slider in the mid-80s and a splitter with excellent movement. His strong strikeout rate is being aided by the variety of pitches he faces.
He is now projected by MLB Pipeline as a possible 2026 call-up. The only pitchers in the system ranked higher than Rosario are Jack Leiter (No. 5) and Kumar Rocker (No. 3). While Leiter has made a few starts for the Rangers this season and is a possible addition to the rotation next season, Rocker is recovering from Tommy John surgery.
In order to acquire reliever Andrew Chafin, the Rangers traded pitcher Joseph Montalvo to Detroit at the deadline, losing one of their Top 30 prospects in the process. Pitcher Walter Pennington, who briefly played for the Rangers last weekend and is currently at Triple-A Round Rock, was acquired by the team in another trade. Pennington is ranked as one of the team’s top 30 prospects.
The Top 30 will probably be changed once again after the release of the new Top 100, this time to reflect the Rangers’ MLB draft selections. Four draft selections—first-round pick Malcolm Moore, second-round pick Dylan Dreiling, third-round pick Casey Cook, and fourth-round pick David Hagaman—made it into Baseball America’s reranked Top 30 this past week.
Leave a Reply