On Monday, Texas designated IF Jonathan Ornelas for assignment and claimed OF Michael Clement off waivers from Pittsburgh.
I can’t say I expected Ornelas to be pushed off the 40 this soon, but I had thought about thinking about it. He was on his last option and has backslid in AAA, with his isolated power in AAA dropping from .106 in 2023 to .075 last year to .029. Ornelas has XBH-worthy exit velocity undercut by a huge number of grounders. Among Express hitters with a decent number of trips to the plate, Ornelas’s average exit of 91.5 on balls hit 20 degrees or higher is the best on the team, but his rate of airborne balls is the worst. Of the 465 hitters with at least 350 PA in AAA the past three seasons, Ornelas’s 58% grounder rate is second highest. Since he has an option and is versatile, I wouldn’t be surprised if he were claimed.
This was a straight-up swap, as Helman is utility depth, having played second, short, center and right for AAA Memphis this season before being waived by St. Louis, nabbed by Pittsburgh and immediately re-designated. The 28-year-old was drafted in 2018’s 11th round out of Texas A&M and briefly reached the Majors last year with Minnesota, collecting three hits in ten trips to the plate. He sports a career line of .257/.331/.445 in 214 AAA games. Replacing Helman in Pittsburgh was former Ranger Nick Solak, who hadn’t swung a bat in the Majors since 2022 but had been hitting well in AAA.
Box Scores
AAA: Round Rock 5, at Charlotte (CHW) 1
Round Rock: 8 hits, 7 walks, 11 strikeouts
Opponent: 5 hits, 3 walks, 9 strikeouts
Record: 22-24, 8.5 GB
SP Dane Dunning: 4 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 3 SO, 54 P / 37 S, 7.07 ERA
RP Ryan Garcia: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 SO, 7.79 ERA
1B Blaine Crim: 2-5, 2B, .287/.350/.545
Venturing east of Nashville for the first time, the Express won the opener of the six-game series in Charlotte. OF Marcus Smith homered, singled twice and stole two bases. He has a Sam Huff-esque batting profile so far with a high miss rate but shockingly solid contact when he connects. Smith has a .714 slugging percentage in Round Rock and a .291 percentage in his other 1,044 professional plate appearances. “Nobody knows anybody. Not that well,” as a movie character once said.
Incidentally, Adrian Houser signed with the White Sox. He did not start for AAA Charlotte last night against Round Rock, instead throwing six scoreless for the Sox themselves en route to a 1-0 win against Seattle.
Instead, Charlotte’s starter was a different ex-Ranger, Owen White, who yielded two runs in five innings. White missed 16 bats last night and has one of the better swinging-strike rates among International League starters, but it hasn’t translated into a strong K rate or effectiveness in general. He’s outpitched his 5.31 ERA, but not by much.
AA: Frisco 3, Midland (ATH) 12
Frisco: 7 hits, 5 walks, 11 strikeouts
Opponent: 15 hits, 6 walks, 15 strikeouts
Record: 22-17, -1.5
SP Trey Supak: 1.1 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 2 SO, 39 P / 27 S, 2.93 ERA
LF Aaron Zavala: 2-5, .258/.436/.412
Frisco scored 39 runs over the course of five early weekday games over the past three weeks but lost three. Trey Supak has pitched well enough to maintain a sub-3.00 ERA despite yesterday’s pounding. Frisco led the division by three games two weeks ago but has gone 5-7 since while Midland won 11 of 13.
Hi-A: Hub City 3, Rome (ATL) 6
Hub City: 3 hits, 4 walks, 5 strikeouts
Opponent: 9 hits, 4 walks, 7 strikeouts
Record: 20-20, 2 GB
SP Leandro Lopez: 6 IP, 5 H (1 HR), 2 R, 0 BB, 4 SO, 73 P / 50 S, 2.30 ERA
RP Dylan MacLean: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 0 SO, 6.00 ERA
LF Keith Jones II: 0-1, 3 BB, .277/.439/.437
CF Dylan Dreilng: 1-4, HR (4), .220/.329/.356
C Julian Brock: 2-4, .170/.262/.266
Leandro Lopez has a 9.2% BB/HBP rate compared to the league’s 12.8%. Never thought I’d see the day. Opponents are hitting .220/.292/.280 with a 27% strikeout rate. With 33 walks, Keith Jones II has usurped the organization lead from Aaron Zavala, which is saying something.
Lo-A: Hickory 2, Myrtle Beach (CHC) 1
Hickory: 3 hits, 5 walks, 7 strikeouts
Opponent: 7 hits, 5 walks, 14 strikeouts
Record: 19-20, 3.5 GB
SP Ismael Agreda: 5 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 SO, 78 P / 51 S, 2.03 ERA
RP Kai Wynyard: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 SO, 2.35 ERA
3B Rafe Perich: 1-3, BB, .207/.333/.345
21-year-old Ismael Agreda has three straight scoreless outings of five innings. Agreda’s free pass rate is still a hefty 14%, but that’s an improvement over last year, and he’s been very tough to hit.
Hickory scored two in the 8th on a wild pitch and bases-loaded walk. Myrtle Beach cut the deficit on a Chandler Pollard error after two walks and two passed balls.
Today’s Starters
AAA: Blach
AA: Drake
Hi-A: Curry
Lo-A: Perry
Rangers Minor League History, 2007-2024
A few weeks ago, I discussed the unluckiest team and the five genuinely worst teams in a Texas-affiliated full-season league during 2007-2024. This week, we do the opposite. The luckiest team during 2007-2024 was the Wilmington Blue Rocks of the Carolina League, an opponent of high-A Down East during 2019.
Team record: 82-56
Run-differential record: 71-67
Component record: 63-75
KC-affiliated Wilmington was, generously, a .500-level club that won nearly 60% of its games. The Blue Rocks were a ridiculous 41-18 in one-run games and 41-38 in all others. They had a genuinely solid pitching staff but a dismal offense, not only scoring a league-worst 3.5 runs per game but being lucky to do so, as their 87 OPS+ and wRC+ indicated about 0.4 fewer runs per game than they actually scored. They weren’t especially lucky in RISP situations, either. Honestly, I don’t have a good explanation for what they did.
Wilmington rather annoyingly would go on to win the league title despite averaging an even three runs per game and being outscored across ten games. Robert Garcia threw 1.1 scoreless innings in relief of Kris Bubic in the deciding game.