Rangers' young arms eye breakout in 2022

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Ricky Vanasco's first pitch was inside to the left-handed TCU batter, barely missing his chest for ball one. Three pitches later, he actually hit the Horned Frogs’ Elijah Nunez. The next batter reached on a throwing error by Vanasco, and while he struck out the third batter, he proceeded to walk the final two before the inning was rolled.

Vanasco, the Rangers’ No.12-ranked prospect per MLB Pipeline, hadn’t pitched in an official game since 2019 due to the COVID-19 shutdown of the Minors in 2020 and undergoing Tommy John surgery last September. So when he took the mound at TCU in late October, during the Rangers’ final Texas Tour stop with the instructional league squad, he admits to feeling a bit overwhelmed in the moment.

Vanasco bounced back in the second inning, tossing a 1-2-3 frame that included two strikeouts and an infield fly ball. He added that if he hadn’t been on an innings limit, he felt like he could’ve gone deep into the game.

“I felt good in the bullpen and then I went out there in the first and lost my rhythm and I struggled regaining it,” Vanasco said. “Then, I came in and talked to the pitching coach and I just went out there and found my rhythm and who I pitch as. I found the smoothness that I need to pitch.

“The important thing is that I'm healthy next year. Regardless of the first inning and what happened, I'm very pleased with how the second inning ended. It was good to finally be back out there in front of everyone.”

Without bad injury luck and the COVID shutdown, Vanasco and his mid-90s fastball likely would have flown through the Rangers’ Minor League system. If he regains that velocity and polishes up his control, he no doubt has the ability to be a solid starter for the club.

Vanasco said his anxiety was through the roof in that TCU game, pitching for the first time in just over a year and doing so in front of a packed crowd at TCU’s Lupton Baseball Stadium. He set high expectations for himself -- not to impress others, but to prove he was in the right place.

“That's kind of what made me struggle in the first inning, and then the second inning, I just kind of went out there and pitched like I know how to pitch and the result was there,” Vanasco said. “It's just how I am, like I'm a very amped-up guy. I'm an emotional guy. I'm very emotional when I'm on the mound. So the anxiety kind of takes over sometimes, and once I catch my breath and I calm down, I find my rhythm.”

Tekoah Roby, the club's No. 25 prospect, fared better from start to finish in his two innings of work against TCU. Roby tossed two hitless innings, logging four strikeouts and walking just one.

“I was just trying to feel comfortable again,” Roby said. “That was my main goal, just having fun and finishing out instructs. I’m pretty confident [in my health now], especially after something like [that outing], where it's like a statement about myself to kind of just send myself into the offseason having confidence with how it feels, and obviously, going into Spring Training feeling the best I can.”

Roby, like Vanasco, returned from injury during instructs. The 2020 third-round Draft choice posted a 2.45 ERA in six starts to kick off his professional career this past summer, but he was shut down in June due to an elbow strain. He was able to avoid Tommy John surgery, but the right-hander was still upset to have missed out on a key development year.

Roby had been dominating instructional league in Arizona before the club started on its Texas Tour, even tossing an immaculate inning in October.

If he stays healthy, Roby figures to return to dominating the Minor Leagues next season as he continues working to get his fastball velocity back up consistently and keep his mechanics clean.

“Nothing too specifically,” Roby said when asked what he's working on. “There's been some mechanical stuff that me and some of the pitching staff is trying to clean up -- just trying to be longer on my backside, so it feels smoother. But velocity in the 93-95 [mph] range, I’d be happy with.”

While both Vanasco and Roby’s professional outings have been brief to this point -- each riddled with injuries -- they’ve both shown they have the stuff to be dominant.

The Rangers' farm system is loaded with pitching talent, from top overall prospect Jack Leiter, to Cole Winn at No. 3 to A.J. Alexy (No. 22) and Glenn Otto (No. 24), both of whom made their MLB debuts during the latter half of the 2021 season.

Vanasco and Roby both figure to be players to look forward to down the line. With both healthy, the Rangers’ plethora of pitching prospects looks to form a phenomenal rotation for 2023 and beyond.

“It's a priority for all good teams to have good starting pitching,” said Texas general manager Chris Young. “I think, certainly, we see some of our young pitchers that we have in the system and how close those guys are.

“With Ricky, we're very proud of the way Ricky has worked to prepare himself, for one, coming out of surgery, and then secondly, to prepare himself for the next year. We just want Ricky to go out and pitch. That's our No. 1 goal for him: stay healthy, pitch and make up for the lost time. He's extremely talented, has a great mentality, great work ethic, great makeup.”