After 20-20 season, Rangers high on prospect Dustin Harris

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Dustin Harris grew up in a crowded household. With two older brothers, one younger brother and four sisters, there was no shortage of energy in his family growing up.

The brothers, Harris said, were competitive with everything -- ping pong, pool, video games, fishing and of course baseball. Both his father David and older brother Dylan are former Minor Leaguers, and his younger brother Dakota is playing high school ball.

“It was never a dull moment,” the 22-year-old Harris said. “It no doubt gives me that competitive edge to just want to get out there and win whatever could be. Tic-tac-toe, rock-paper-scissors, whatever it is, I don't like to lose.”

That environment molded Harris into the player he’s become today.

Harris was one of two players to be named acquired on Sept. 18, 2020, after the Rangers traded Mike Minor to the A’s three weeks prior. Now, the club’s No. 17-ranked prospect is rapidly rising through the system after a breakthrough season with Low-A Down East and High-A Hickory in which he slashed .327/.401/.542 with a .943 OPS.

Harris was named the Rangers’ Tom Grieve Player of the Year at the end of his first season in the system.

Rangers president of baseball operations Jon Daniels, who was general manager at the time of the Minor trade, said the club scouted Harris while he was at St. Petersburg (Fla.) Junior College, but ultimately he was drafted by Oakland in the 11th round in 2019.

“He was more hitter over power at that point,” Daniels said. “But we felt like there was a frame and a swing that were conducive to adding strength and adding power in time. The makeup stuff came back really good. For a big man, he's a pretty good athlete. … He moves pretty well and hopefully he can maintain it as he goes into his mid- to late-20s.”

Daniels was right. While being able to hit was nothing new to Harris, hitting home runs was. Between two seasons of junior college and his first professional season in 2019 in the A’s system, Harris only hit nine total home runs.

Then the power came along in 2021, when Harris launched 20 home runs between both A-ball levels. He attributes the sudden long-ball power to simply lifting weights and a slight change in his approach at the plate.

“Honestly before last season, I never really tried to hit the ball in the air like that,” Harris said. “So last year, I tried to hit the ball in the air going pull side and just backspinning baseballs and all.”

Hickory manager Josh Johnson has seen the physical and mental growth Harris has experienced since the 2020 trade. Both being from the Tampa area, the two met last offseason and worked out four days a week.

Johnson said he always felt like Harris was strong enough to hit homers consistently, and it was just about tweaking those little things in his swing.

“I felt like it was my responsibility to get him prepared for what he was going to experience,” Johnson said. “I could already see a hidden ability. I wasn't sure what it was going to be in the game, but I could see it. I was seeing him go through his hitting routine that a lot of advanced hitters did. So as soon as I saw that I was like, ‘Man, this guy, I think he's going to hit.’”

And he did hit. Harris tore through Low-A and somehow got even better with an early August promotion to Hickory with Johnson. With the Crawdads, Harris hit .372/.425/.648 with a 1.073 OPS over 37 games.

Listed at 6-foot-2, 185 pounds, Harris isn’t exactly a guy you expect to see speeding around the basepaths. But with 25 stolen bases, Harris was one of just 16 players in the Minors to produce a 20-20 season in 2021. It was also his first season with double-digit steals.

Though Harris has above-average grades for speed, especially for a corner infielder, both Johnson and Daniels credit his success on the basepaths to his ability to read pitchers with his intelligence and feel for the game itself.

There’s really only two questions remaining when it comes to Harris: Can he continue slugging his way through Double-A Frisco, Triple-A Round Rock and eventually Arlington? And what position will he play?

Harris has played both corner-infield positions through his professional career, but the Rangers have had him taking reps in the outfield through fall instructional league and Minor League camp. Daniels said there’s a “high degree of confidence” that Harris can be a big league first baseman, but they ultimately see him as an outfielder long term.

No matter what happens, Harris is just one of many prospects that the Rangers acquired in trades during the rebuild process that figure to be important parts of the club’s future.

“All that being said, he’s exceeded expectations [since the trade],” Daniels said. “It's still really early, but the physical, the mental side, his aptitude and intelligence, his work ethic, like all these things are kind of just, check, check, check, check, check, check with Dustin.”