Rangers load up on sleepers to cap a loaded draft class

The Rangers didn't mess around at the top of this year's draft. Gio Rojas went first overall at pick 16 for a reported $4.6 million, Connor Comeau got $2.5 million in the second round, and Brody Bumila landed a stunning $2.75 million in round 3 — nearly $2 million over slot. That's the kind of spending that eats up almost your entire bonus pool fast. Texas came in with a $10,219,000 pool, and pushing north of $10 million total meant the front office had to get creative to squeeze in extra talent late.

That's where the savings play comes in. According to reporting, the Rangers' 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th rounders all signed for token $2,500 bonuses, freeing up real money to overpay elsewhere in the class. Enter Jackson Nash, the 12th-round arm out of Longwood, who just put pen to paper on a $170,000 deal — with only $20,000 of it actually charged against the bonus pool.

Jim Callis

@jimcallisMLB

12th-rder Jackson Nash signs w/@Rangers for $170k ($20k counts vs bonus pool). Sleeper @LongwoodBase RHP, 92-94 mph fastball reaches 96 & explodes on hitters, interesting low-80s changeup too. @MLBDraft

Nash isn't a name casual fans were tracking heading into draft weekend. The 6-foot-6, 235-pound righty out of Monroe, North Carolina put together a 4-2 record with a 4.26 ERA in 44 1/3 innings for the Lancers this spring, striking out 59 against just 18 walks. Modest numbers on paper, but scouts don't sign a guy for $170,000 in the 12th round off ERA — they sign him off the arm. A fastball that sits 92-94 and touches 96, paired with a low-80s changeup, is exactly the kind of raw stuff that gets player development types excited about projection.

It's also a nice moment for Longwood baseball, a program that doesn't produce MLB draftees every year. Nash is just the 12th Longwood player ever selected, and he slots in as the third-highest pick in program history behind Michael Tucker, who went 10th overall to Kansas City back in 1992, and Frankie Watson, a 7th-round pick in 1988.

For the Rangers, this is the payoff of the strategy — take your medicine on overslot deals for premium talent early, then use the leftover scraps to buy upside late. A $170,000 price tag barely moves the needle compared to what Bumila or Comeau got, but if Nash's fastball plays the way Callis suggests, it could end up looking like the best-value pick in the entire class. Texas has quietly built one of the more well-rounded farm systems in baseball the last few years, and rounding out the draft with a projectable arm like this is exactly how that gets sustained.