MLB-News: The Texas Rangers Are Officially Trading For San Diego Padres Franchise Premier Pitcher. According to ESPN Reports, the incredible star Pitcher officially Inked a $190 million, six-year deal With Rangers Following……

The 2024 MLB Draft is a little less than two months away — the first round kicks off on July 14, 2024 — so its time to start offering capsule looks at players the Texas Rangers could select with their top picks. The Rangers’ first round pick is at #30, their second round pick is at #65, and their third round pick is at #103.

Leading up to draft day, we will be doing writeups of some of the players who could end up getting selected by the Rangers with one of their first three picks. I will note we haven’t really done this in the past couple of years, due both to the fact that the Rangers were picking at the top of the draft, meaning there were only a handful of players really in play with their first round pick, and the fact that they didn’t have their second and third round picks.

I will also note there is something else I was planning on writing about today, but it is going to take me a while to work on, so I’m going to put this write-up up today and hopefully have my other project done and up tomorrow.

Today, we are looking at Nebraska prep shortstop Tyson Lewis.

Tyson Lewis is a 6’2”, 195 lb. lefthanded hitting shortstop out of Millard West High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Lewis turned 18 in January of this year, and is committed to the University of Arkansas.

Lewis is someone who appears to be raising his stock with his performance this spring. The reports indicate that he’s a solid defender at shortstop who has a chance to stick at the position, but who should be able to handle second base or center field if he has to move off of shortstop, with mixed reviews on whether he has the arm for third base.

Lewis has more power than many prep shortstops show, and the reports praise his hand speed and ability to turn on balls at the plate. There are concerns about how much swing-and-miss he has at this stage, though as someone who plays in Nebraska, Lewis hasn’t been exposed to as much quality pitching as players from areas with more robust prep baseball scenes. Lewis has good but not great speed, which he has reportedly maintained while adding good weight over the past year.

Baseball America’s top 400 list currently has Lewis at #110, though I’m guessing he’ll be higher on the board when they update their list. MLB Pipeline has Lewis at #43 on their board. Keith Law has Lewis at #33 on his top 50 list. Fangraphs does not have Lewis listed in their top 30 draft prospects.

In his most recent mock draft, Law has Lewis going to the Rangers at #30, which is why I decided to write up Lewis today. I haven’t seen him mentioned in any other mock drafts.

Prep position players like Lewis who are coming from cold weather states — particularly cold weather states that are sparsely populated — present a scouting challenge. The high school seasons start late, end fairly early — Nebraska’s high school playoffs wrapped up this past weekend, with Lewis’s Millard West taking the Class A state title — and generally feature weaker talent pools. With a pitcher in such a situation, you can at least look at the objective data in regards to velocity, spin, movement and the like, allowing you to directly compare to other prep pitchers. Position players present more of an unknown

Lewis’s circumstances presenting a larger cone of uncertainty also make it harder to determine where he will go in the 2024 MLB Draft, as well as what he may do as a pro. Regular exposure to better pitchers may result in Lewis refining his approach and swing decisions and improving his swing recognition, or it may expose Lewis as being limited at the plate.

I would be surprised if the Rangers took Lewis in the first round, but he could be an option in the next few rounds, particularly as an overslot choice in the third or fourth round. The Rangers have gone with prep shortstops Cam Cauley (3rd round in 2021), Cody Freeman (4th round in 2019), and Jonathan Ornelas (3rd round in 2018) in those rounds in recent years, and have not drafted a college player in the fourth round since Charles Leblanc in 2016, so there’s a potential fit there.