Batting champ Crim brings winter ball experience to camp

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Rangers first base prospect Blaine Crim spent his winter the same way he spends most of his year -- playing baseball.

But this winter was different. After a successful season playing with High-A Hickory and Double-A Frisco, Crim and the Rangers decided it would be beneficial for him to play winter ball somewhere. Collectively, they landed on the Puerto Rican Winter League -- Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente -- at the suggestion of one of Hickory's coaches.

“I went down there and didn't know what to expect,” Crim said. “It was a completely different culture and different style of play, but it was a lot of fun. It was a blast and it was an experience I'll remember for a long time.”

The Mobile, Ala., native wasn’t wrong about differing cultures and different styles of play, but he thrived in that environment.

Crim became the first born-and-raised American to win the batting title in the Puerto Rican Winter League while batting over .400 since the 1948-49 season. His team, the Indios de Mayaguez, finished as the runner-up, with Crim ending with a season slash line of .406/.452/.594.

“We had a really good team; a very talented team with three or four big leaguers, I believe,” Crim said. “So it was really easy to hit in that lineup and I had really good protection -- I was getting a lot of good pitches to hit. Just kind of learning from those guys kind of helped me adjust more. That was kind of the whole thought process going down there, being more adjustable. It just kind of started clicking, and after a couple of weeks, I ran with it and tried to stay with that same approach every day.”

Crim said the experience in Puerto Rico was good for him because “every game was Game 7 of the World Series there.” He tried to play with that mindset every day and wants to bring that with him into this coming season with the Rangers' organization.

“They really value winning,” Crim said. “That mindset of how to not [take a] pitch off and play every game like it matters. Because when you have that long season, you can kind of get caught up and take a game off or a pitch off. That can really spiral into a slump, and out there, the intensity was 100% all the time. I think that intent is something that I'll try to translate over here.”

Crim, a 19th-round pick out of Division II Mississippi College in 2019, has flown under the radar outside of the organization since being drafted. Despite that, he’s hit consistently at every level of the Minors, even before his winter in Puerto Rico. After just two games in Rookie ball in ‘19, he was promoted to Low-A Spokane, where he hit .335 with eight homers in 53 games.

Though the 2020 season was canceled due to the pandemic, Crim thrived immediately in ‘21, slashing .296/.358/.548 with 29 homers between Hickory and Frisco.

As a right-handed-throwing and righty-hitting first baseman, Crim isn't a fixture of most prospect sites. He recognizes that the bar is a little higher for guys of his size (5-foot-11) and stature (200 pounds) at the position. While he believes he can be a big league first baseman, he’s been working at third base and both corner outfield spots in the Rangers’ Minor League minicamp in order to become more versatile down the line.

And while he may not be at the top of many prospect rankings, Crim tries to utilize the things he learned in Puerto Rico to keep up his intensity on every single pitch and play of the game.

“I’m just trying to stay grounded the whole time and not really worry about [the outside noise],” Crim said. “It’s more about keeping a level mindset and staying present that helps me be most successful. When I get caught up in all the extracurricular stuff is when I can kind of get down a little bit. So as long as I worry about myself and the team winning, it usually works out."