Rangers' Huff ends stint at big league camp

Sam Huff began March with a colossal home run. The rest will fly much further under the radar.
The Rangers on Friday assigned MLB.com's No. 74 overall prospect and 11 others to Minor League camp.

Right-hander Ariel Jurado was optioned to Triple-A Nashville. Eighth-ranked Rangers prospect Anderson Tejeda, No. 24 Tyler Phillips and right-hander Kyle Cody were optioned to Double-A Frisco. Left-hander Kyle Bird and right-handers Jason Bahr, Tim Dillard, Ian Gibaut, Taylor Guerrieri, Wei-Chieh Huang and Arturo Reyes were assigned to Minor League camp.
Huff went1-for-12 with six strikeouts in his second spring in the Cactus League, his lone hit being a solo homer against the Dodgers on Sunday that nearly cleared the batter's eye at Camelback Ranch.

Good morning!

We're told this ball just landed. pic.twitter.com/NDILKStUjy

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) March 2, 2020

That same power propelled Huff, Texas' No. 2 prospect, to 28 homers in 2019. His previous career high was 18. The 2016 seventh-round pick crushed 15 dingers in 30 games for Class A Hickory, where he posted a 1.165 OPS. He moved up to Class A Advanced Down East in early May and compiled a .262/.326/.425 slash line in 367 at-bats over the rest of the season.
Huff, 22, earned MVP honors at the All-Star Futures Game after hitting a game-tying, two-run homer off 10th-ranked Rockies prospect Ben Bowden. He played first base in the showcase and started three times at that position last year but should stick behind the plate as he develops. Huff moves well for a 6-foot-4 catcher and grades well in the Rangers' framing metrics, according to MLB Pipeline. He threw out 30 of 63 (47.6 percent) would-be basestealers last year.
Texas has 56 players in Major League camp.