ARLINGTON — The decision makers who oversee the Texas Rangers draft process will, of course, unpack a player’s swing, their pitchability, their projectability, their exit velocities and their pitch velocities.
Eventually.
Before that, though, they will discuss and examine a player’s makeup. It’s become a keystone factor in the evaluation process as they sift through hundreds of draft prospects on an annual basis. It is to them, in many ways, equally important as a player’s physical abilities.
The Rangers believe that Gavin Fien is an idealized mesh of both.
Rangers
“We tell our scouts to turn over rock and try to find every piece of information,” Rangers amateur scouting director Kip Fagg said Tuesday. “It was hard to find anything negative on Gavin, to be honest, which a good thing.”
Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young and Fagg introduced Fien at Globe Life Field Tuesday afternoon and presented him with his own No. 8 jersey in front of a room full of his family and Texas front office personal before the team’s game vs. the Athletics.
Related:Who is Gavin Fien? 5 things to know about the Texas Rangers’ 2025 first-round pick
“Words can’t even describe it honestly,” Fien said. “Just being an 18-year-old out of high school, what this means for me and my family, the hard work that I put in throughout the years, just the grind and ups and down and to be able to be apart of such a quality organization is just so incredible.”
Fien, who will report to the club’s Surprise, Ariz. facility Wednesday for onboarding, took batting practice with the big league club after his introduction. His final swing resulted in a home run into the visitor’s bullpen and earned him a pat on the chest from third baseman and former first-round pick Josh Jung.
“He was just a really special personality,” said Jake Vollen, the first-year Los Angeles-based area scout who signed Fien. “Special dedication, work ethic, someone we were really excited to potentially join the organization.”
The club announced that they’d come to terms with Fien Monday night. The two sides agreed to a $4.8 million bonus, a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations told The Dallas Morning News, which is significantly less than the $5.7 million designated slot value for the 12th overall pick.
“We feel he embodies every single thing we look for in a player,” Young said. “From the competitive spirit, the love of the game, the teammate that he is, but certainly the talent that he is as well. Obviously the talent speaks for itself.”
Fien hit .358 with 5 home runs and more walks (11) than strikeouts (9) in his senior season at Great Oak (Calif.) and posted a 1.109 OPS for the Team USA U-18 national team last summer. Baseball America — which now ranks Fien as the system’s fourth-best prospect — classified him as one of the “most well-rounded hitters” among this year’s crop of high school draftees.
Vollen said that Fien, who played travel ball with the San Diego Show program, was “completely self-coached” in high school and didn’t work with a specialized hitting coach as many top draft prospects (especially in the Southern California area) now do.
“For me, I talk about special hands, and the ability to find the ball, find the bat and find the barrel,” Vollen said. “The natural ability, I think, was really exciting for me. Being able to hit the ball consistently and hitter for power was rare for the prospects I had the chance to see.”
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