{"id":656298,"date":"2026-04-01T09:41:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/656298\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T09:41:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:41:40","slug":"rangers-second-round-pick-assigned-to-hickory-crawdads-for-pro-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/656298\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers Second-Round Pick Assigned to Hickory Crawdads for Pro Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s not clear when he\u2019ll take the ball for the first time with Hickory. But the college pitcher has traveled a long road to get to this point. <\/p>\n<p>He underwent an internal brace surgery in 2024 as a sophomore with the Volunteers. The season before, as a freshman, he was one of the Vols\u2019 top relievers as batters hit .095 against him and he had a 0.89 ERA. Russell was attempting to move into the starting rotation when he suffered the injury. <\/p>\n<p>He didn\u2019t pitch much when he returned for the 2025 season, his junior year. He only threw 25.1 innings. That didn\u2019t throw off the Rangers from taking him in the second round with the goal of allowing Russell to continue his buildup last year without putting him in game action. Russell had a year left of college and could have returned. But Texas paid him a $2.6 million bonus, which was over-slot. <\/p>\n<p>Why? As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/milb\/prospects\/rangers\/aj-russell-805706\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MLB Pipeline<\/a> put it, Russell has a \u201cunicorn fastball.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRussell&#8217;s heater parks at 93-96 mph and tops out at 98 with an unhittable combination of an exceptionally low release point, wide angle, significant armside run and carry,\u201d per MLB Pipeline\u2019s scouting report. <\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s starting at Class-A due to his limited college experience. Many college starters taken in the first or second round tend to start at a higher affiliate. But, combined with his injury, the Rangers are expected to take it slow with the right-hander, who still needs to refine secondary pitches like his slider and change-up. <\/p>\n<p>Hickory 2026 Break Camp Roster<\/p>\n<p>Pitchers: Angel Anazco, Aidan Deakins, Jake Jekielek, Jesus Lafalaise, Frank Martinez, Aneudis Mejia, Jormy Nivar, Geury Rodriguez, Evan Siary, Michael Trausch, Wily Villar, Alejandro Chiquillo, Louis Marinaro, JD McReynolds, Moises Morales, Luimy Munoz, and AJ Russell.<\/p>\n<p>Catchers: Josh Springer, Juan Sulbaran, and Jhocsuanth Vargas.<\/p>\n<p>Infielders: Angel Arredondo, Yolfran Castillo, Carter Garate, Pablo Guerrero, Luis Marquez, and Esteban Mejia.<\/p>\n<p>Outfielders: Braylin Morel, Hector Osorio, Paulino Santana, Marcos Torres, and Deward Tover.<\/p>\n<p>Note: Roster subject to change before opener. <\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not clear when he\u2019ll take the ball for the first time with Hickory. But the college pitcher&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,4,149,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-656298","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\/116328797796937953","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656298","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=656298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}