With the 2025 Texas Rangers season having come to an end, we shall be, over the course of the offseason, taking a look at every player who appeared in a major league game for the Texas Rangers in 2025.

Today we are looking at first baseman Blaine Crim.

The fact that we are writing about Blaine Crim as part of this series is a win, in and of itself, for the player. Crim was a $5000 senior sign as a 19th round pick of the Rangers in 2019 — pre-pandemic, when the draft was still 40 rounds. Nowadays, given how the draft pool rules operate, a team isn’t going to use a 19th rounder on a low-cost senior sign — someone like Crim will either get picked in rounds 6-10, as a way below slot guy so that slot savings can be applied to other picks, or signed as an undrafted free agent.

In case you are interested, only two other 19th rounders from 2019 have appeared in the majors. One of them is Kevin Kelly, who signed with the Guardians out of James Madison for $100K, and has spent the past three seasons pitching out of the bullpen for the Rays after being claimed off of waivers from the Rockies (who claimed him off of waivers from the Guardians). The other is Kerry Carpenter, who signed with Detroit for $125K out of Virginia Tech, and has turned into a solid platoon COF.

Crim was selected out of Mississippi College, where he was a four year starter. Mississippi College is a different institution of higher learning than Mississippi State, or Ole Miss, or Southern Miss. Looking at Wikipedia, I learned that Mississippi College is the oldest college or university in the State of Mississippi, having been founded in 1826, and is the second-oldest Baptist affiliated college or university in the United States.

When I was younger, conventional wisdom held that the Mississippi college football teams struggled because there were too many of them for such a small state. The argument went that LSU had an advantage because it was the only major conference school in Louisiana. Arkansas was the only major conference school in Arkansas. Tennessee had just one — Tennessee. There were only two major conference schools in Alabama. Thus, in recruiting in-state players, those schools had an advantage because there was less in-state competition.

But Mississippi had a pair of SEC teams, as well as what was then a major independent (this was back when there were quite a few major independents, and not just Notre Dame like it is now). Mississippi had a smaller population than all the above list states except Louisiana, but had three in-state major college programs fighting over the in-state recruits.

Anyway, Crim had a nice season for Spokane in its final season as a short-season A affiliate after signing. The pandemic wiped out 2020, but when affiliated minor league play resumed in 2021, Crim continue to hit well, spending most of the year at high-A Hickory before moving to Frisco to finish the season.

A successful 2022 season at Frisco earned Crim a late season promotion to Round Rock, where he also spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Crim continued to hit well. He also never appeared among the BA top 30 prospects for the Rangers, never seemed to be in serious consideration for a 40 man roster spot, wasn’t selected in any of the Rule 5 Drafts where he was eligible to be selected. He was generally viewed as organizational depth more than a legit prospect.

Part of it is age. Crim was 22 when he was drafted, and missed his age 23 season due to the pandemic. Thus, when he debuted at Hickory, he was in his age 24 season. His full year at Frisco was in his age 25 season. That’s older than most players — particularly hitters — are going to be at those levels. Similarly, a 26-27 year old at AAA is generally going to be viewed as a fringe guy, or organizational depth, rather than a capital “P” prospect.

Part of it is his positional limitations. Crim is a 5’10” righthanded hitting 1B/DH. 5’10” is on the small side for a first baseman, and 1B/DHs generally — and righthanded hitting ones especially — have to really mash to get on the map.

As noted above, Crim hit well at every level as a pro. His career minor league slash line is .292/.372/.503. In 389 career games at AAA, he has a .282/.373/.482 slash line. That’s a good slash line.

But good isn’t good enough when it comes to someone with Crim’s profile. As a 1B/DH, at his age, playing in the hitter-friendly PCL, he was going to have to put up great numbers to really be on the prospect map. If you don’t dominate AAA pitchers with that sort of profile, its going to be hard to get an opportunity.

Crim finally did get an opportunity with the Rangers in May. The Rangers opted to send the struggling Jake Burger down to AAA to try to get him going. To take his place, they purchased Crim’s contract, adding him to the 40 man roster, and the active roster, for the first time.

The opportunity, as it turned out, was brief. Crim got three starts at 1B, and came into two other games late at DH. He went 0 for 11 with six Ks, one walk, and one HBP. When Burger was brought back up, a little over a week after being sent down, Crim was returned to Round Rock.

Crim remained in Round Rock until the trade deadline, when the Rangers, needing 40 man roster spots for their deadline additions, designated him for assignment. The Colorado Rockies claimed him, putting an end to a six-plus year stint with the Rangers organization.

Crim getting claimed by the Rockies worked out pretty well for him, as he was promoted to the majors again in early September. Playing regularly over the final few weeks of the season, Crim put up a .241/.295/.556 slash line in 15 games, including five home runs.

Crim defied the odds, made it to the majors, and, despite not succeeding with the Rangers, got a second chance with the Rockies and did well.