Emerging Texas Rangers Prospect Earns Carolina League Player of Week Honor

There are many ways to get on the radar of talent evaluators when it comes to a team’s Top 30 prospects.

Some of it is about talent and that’s evident the day they’re drafted. But for other players, they must play their way on the list.

Winning league awards can help pave the way for reaching that list.

Maxton Martin is a 19-year-old outfielder that only Texas Rangers fans with a deep knowledge of the minor league system knows. But he put himself on everyone’s radar on Monday was he was named the Carolina League Player of the Week for April 7-13.

The Rangers announced the award via its social media account. This is the first award this season for Martin.

Martin played in five games last week against Augusta and had a terrific .522 batting average (12-for-23) with a triple, three doubles and five RBI. Notably, he had a 1.261 OPS. In the matchup on Sunday, he set a career high with four hits.

Through just eight games in the Carolina League, he is among the league leaders in hits (1st, 15), extra-base hits (1st, 7), total bases (1st, 25), slugging (2nd, .694), RBI (T2nd, 11), and OPS (4th, 1.115).

Going into this week’s action he has slashed .417/.421/.694 with five doubles, one triple, one home run and 11 RBI.

The Rangers have two outfielders among their Top 10 prospects per MLB Pipeline, including Alejandro Osuna, who spent most of spring training with the Major League team. He’s ranked No. 8. Behind him at No. 10 is Dylan Dreiling.

Other outfielders among the Top 30 prospects including Paulino Santana at No. 11, Abimelec Ortiz at No. 14 (he can also play first base), Yeremy Cabrera at No. 16, Braylin Morel at No. 17, Anthony Gutierrez at No. 18 and Elorky Rodriguez at No. 20.

Martin was drafted in the 11th round of the 2023 MLB draft out of Southridge High School in Kennewick, Wash. He opted to sign with the Rangers as opposed to going to college.

He played 10 games with the Rangers’ Arizona Complex League team in 2023 and slashed .243/.378/.378 with one home run and seven RBI.

Given his age, the Rangers held him at the ACL another season in 2024, and his slash took a small step back — .230/.314/.356 — with two home runs and 26 RBI.