With its first-round pick in the 2020 MLB draft, and the fourteenth pick overall, the Texas Rangers choose second baseman Justin Foscue from Mississippi State. The Rangers will have four more picks in this COVID-shortened draft from forty rounds to just five.

Ranked at number 32 by MLB Pipeline, the Rangers reached down early to snag Foscue.

“We just felt this kid’s bat was a special bat,” Rangers scouting director Kip Fagg told MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan. “We truly believe in this kid’s bat. It has a chance to be an impact bat.”

To summarize, they like his bat.

The reputation on him is he can hit. He makes contact, in the mode of Nick Solak. He fits the pattern of recent Rangers draft picks like Josh Jung and Davis Wendzel, both known for their special skills with the bat.

Sullivan notes there are still questions about his defense, with his arm and range regarded as average. And, according to MLB Network Radio analysts, he is lacking speed too. In fact, MLB Network Radio pegged him as a run of the mill major leaguer. We shall see. Draft picks are the ultimate crap shoot.

Foscue said that sort of challenge motivates him.  He told Sullivan: “Throughout my whole life I have never been the top-ranked kind of player. I had chip on my shoulder to prove people wrong.”

Let’s hope he does again.

The twenty-one-year-old from Hunstville, Alabama, bats right, throws right, is six feet even.

Welcome to the Texas Rangers, Justin. Here’s hoping we see you playing in a Rangers uniform soon. And, since you’re a second baseman, soon soon.