Bad luck strikes the Rangers even before the first full-squad workout.

Highly regarded prospect Sabastian Walcott will miss significant time in 2026 due to elbow surgery. He might even miss the entire season. If so, that will be a huge blow to his development, considering the almost certain loss of significant time next year, and possibly 2028, due to a the impending lockout.

The Rangers seem to be snake bitten when it comes to top prospects. Recall Jurickson Profar. He was the top prospect in all of baseball, In 2014, he suffered a torn labrum. He came back in 2015, only to tear it again and miss another entire season. But, unlike Walcott, Profar did get in some major league at-bats before being derailed by injury. In fact, he homered in his first big league at-bat in 2012. He got significant playing time in 2013 as well. In fact, he had accumulated 341 at-bats as a Ranger before losing those two prime years of development time in 2014 and 2015.

The same bad luck hit Josh Jung when he was a prime Rangers prospect. Highly anticipated to take over for Adrian Beltre. Signed in 2019, Jung lost all of 2020 due to the pandemic. He missed a good portion of 2021 with a broken foot, and a significant part of 2022 with a torn labrum. 

That same labrum injury has now hit Walcott. Let’s hope he’s able to hit the ground running on his way to stardom once he and baseball get back.