Fast-Rising Rangers Pitching Prospect Claims Franchise’s Top Award

Kohl Drake’s first start at Triple-A Round Rock didn’t go as he had hoped, but that didn’t diminish a great June in the Texas Rangers’ organization.

After a fantastic month with Double-A Frisco, the organization named the 24-year-old right-hander the Rangers minor league pitcher of the month for June. Drake is the Rangers’ No. 11 prospect per MLB Pipeline.

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The other award winners were infielder Cody Freeman (player), pitcher Codi Heuer (reliever) and infielder Antonis Macias (defender).

Drake was the Rangers’ 11th round pick in the 2022 MLB draft out of Walters State Community College in Tennessee. He started this season with Frisco and steadily gained momentum toward a terrific June.

In four starts, he went 2-1 with a 1.64 ERA, a 0.91 WHIP, a .160 opponent batting average and 21 strikeouts against eight walks. He allowed just four earned runs in 22 innings.

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In the Texas League, he was third in hits allowed per nine innings with 4.91, fourth in WHIP, fourth in opponent batting average and sixth in ERA. He put together a 16-inning scoreless streak across three starts. That included a career-best seven-inning game on June 18 against San Antonio. He allowed one hit and struck out six.

In his first start with Round Rock last week, he gave up seven hits and four runs (three earned) in 3.1 innings. He struck out six and walked one.

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Freeman, who was the Rangers’ fourth-round pick in 2019 and plays at Round Rock, slashed .347/.413/.582 with six home runs, five doubles, 19 RBI, and more walks (10) than strikeouts (9) in 23 games last month.

He’s played at Round Rock all season and entered this week with a slash of .316/.369/.505 with 12 home runs, 20 doubles, and 54 RBI to rank among Pacific Coast League leaders in batting average (fourth) hits (fifth), and runs (tied for sixth, 59).

The 29-year-old Heuer had a 1.80 ERA in 10 innings in June with Round Rock, as he had a 14.40 strikeout-per-nine inning ratio with a 0.80 WHIP in eight games.

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The right-hander, who was originally a sixth-round selection by Chicago-AL in 2018, owns a 3-2 record with 2 saves and a 2.91 ERA in 29 games for the Express this year.

Macias, a 20-year-old infielder for Class-A Hickory did not make an error in 24 games at second base (20) and first base (four). He was the only Carolina League infielder with at least 20 games played in June to not make an error, and one of two such players in all of Single-A (also Dunedin’s Kendry Chirinos of the Toronto organization).

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