Rangers 2021 MLB Draft preview: Marcelo Mayer? Jordan Lawlar? Jack Leiter? Texas looks to build on first-round successes
New York TimesIt’s been 285 days since the Rangers clinched baseball’s second-worst record in 2020. It’s difficult to find a mock draft that doesn’t lead off with San Diego-area high school shortstop Marcelo Mayer going to the Pirates as the first pick. When it comes to evaluating the very top talents in the draft — particularly coming off a year when far fewer high school and college games were played, portions of the country were less accessible than others, and the 2020 draft was a shortened five-round event that, combined with the NCAA’s extension of an extra year of eligibility, added hundreds of players to the 2021 talent pool — points of view in the team’s draft war room vary. If Texas were to add Leiter, he’d instantly stand alongside Winn as one of the franchise’s top two pitching prospects — two weeks, coincidentally, after he might have faced Winn in the College World Series had the latter maintained his commitment to Mississippi State three years ago. Whoever it is and however much time he gets on the field in 2021, and whether it’s a high school shortstop or a college pitcher, one thing is certain: The Rangers’ first pick Sunday will immediately become part of the core group — joining Frisco’s Winn, Jung and Thompson — that the club will be counting on heavily.
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