Here's the Rangers' Spring Breakout roster
Kennedi Landry
@kennlandrySURPRISE, Ariz. -- Pitching development has been a hot topic in the Rangers organization for years now. While homegrown position players like Josh Jung and Evan Carter have come up to the big leagues and thrived in recent years, the club has fewer superstar pitchers coming through the system.
With MLB’s new Spring Breakout event debuting this year, the Rangers' top pitching prospects like Brock Porter (MLB's No. 88 prospect) and Jack Leiter (Texas' No. 8) will have a chance to showcase their talents on a national stage.
“I'm excited to see what our coaching and development group does this year with some of our pitchers, especially ones on bounce-back seasons,” said Rangers assistant general manager for player development Ross Fenstermaker. “Players that either dealt with lack of performance, injury or some subtle regression in 2023, I think that group is really motivated to get going and I think we have a healthy amount of pitching talent.”
Joining the high-profile likes of Leiter and Porter will be former Top 100 prospect Owen White -- who made two brief big league appearances last season -- flamethrowing reliever Emiliano Teodo (No. 16) and Marc Church (No. 23), who has impressed in big league camp this spring with a chance to make the Opening Day roster in the bullpen.
“I know we've talked about it for a few years now, but it takes a while for these arms to come together,” Fenstermaker said. “It's a nonlinear path to the big leagues for pitchers and I just have a, I don’t know, call it a gut feeling, that this is going to be the year of the pitcher on the farm, and I'm excited to see these guys break through.”
Spring Breakout is a new four-day event spotlighting the sport's most promising future stars, via a series of seven-inning exhibition games between prospect teams from various clubs. Each team will be made up of top prospects from each organization.
The Rangers’ prospects will face off with their counterparts from the Reds on March 14 at Surprise Stadium at 5:05 p.m. CT/3:05 p.m. MST. It will be a traditional doubleheader, with the big league clubs playing after the Spring Breakout game.
What is Spring Breakout? MLB Spring Breakout is a four-day event showcasing baseball’s future: the current stars of Minor League Baseball. The inaugural edition will be held from March 14-17 at Grapefruit and Cactus league stadiums during Spring Training. A series of 16 exhibition games will be played between teams comprised of each MLB organization’s top prospects, creating a new touchpoint on the baseball calendar that celebrates our sport’s budding talent.
PITCHERS
Brock Porter, RHP, No. 4 (MLB No. 88)
Jack Leiter, RHP, No. 8
Jose Corniell, RHP, No. 9*
Owen White, RHP, No. 10
Emiliano Teodo, RHP, No. 16
Aidan Curry, RHP, No. 19
Mitch Bratt, LHP, No. 20
Antoine Kelly, LHP, No. 22*
Marc Church, RHP, No. 23
Dane Acker, RHP, No. 28
Izack Tiger, RHP, No. 29
Reid Birlingmair, RHP, NR
Skylar Hales, RHP, NR
Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa, RHP, NR
*Removed from roster