{"id":619225,"date":"2026-03-11T22:42:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T22:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/619225\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T22:42:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T22:42:57","slug":"rangers-rule-5-pick-is-making-a-case-as-the-steal-of-the-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/619225\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers’ Rule 5 pick is making a case as the steal of the offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the summer of 2020, RHP Carter Baumler had a huge decision to make. Would he rather turn pro or go play college baseball at the prestigious Texas Christian University?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Being the 133rd overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft, Baumler chose to chase his dreams and become a pro. However, he has dealt with some bad injury luck since signing with the Baltimore Orioles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just a few months after being drafted, he tore his UCL and had to have Tommy John surgery. And after returning, he has undergone shoulder issues from 2022 to 2024, but had a full season of work in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Rangers linked to the ‘best pure athlete’ in the prep class this upcoming draft<\/a><\/p>\n

Rangers’ Rule 5 pick is making a case as the steal of the offseason<\/p>\n

With his injury history, the Orioles decided they did not want to add him to the 40-man roster, and he was available to all clubs in the Rule 5 draft. He would then be drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a>, who immediately traded him to the Texas Rangers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Rangers feel comfortable about Baumler’s health as the team physician is none other than Dr. Keith Meister, the one who performed his Tommy John surgery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So far, the hard-throwing righty has been dominant this spring. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel<\/a> tags him as a potential breakout candidate for the club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Baumler is a Rule 5 pick with late-inning-level stuff who was made available by the Orioles because he had thrown just 88.2 innings over four pro seasons, only a handful of which were above A-ball. He’s showing above-average to plus stuff with his four-seam fastball, slider, and curveball while also throwing enough strikes to be a real contributor to this year’s big league club.”<\/p>\n

Expect to see Baumler work to bridge the gap and get the game closer to the ninth inning. Texas had a great bullpen last year, and will need them again if they want to end a two-year playoff drought.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the summer of 2020, RHP Carter Baumler had a huge decision to make. Would he rather turn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,4,149,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-619225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-rangers","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-rangers","13":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116212966510683509","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}