ARLINGTON -- It’s a prospect-heavy newsletter this week as the Rangers held their yearly Minor League leadership minicamp at Globe Life Field and MLB Pipeline dropped its updated Top 100 Prospects list.
Justin Foscue was one of the 11 Rangers prospects selected to come to Arlington for the leadership minicamp.
Foscue, now ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Rangers’ No. 5 prospect, was selected 14th overall in the 2020 MLB Draft out of Mississippi State University. He posted a slash line of .288/.367/.483 in 101 games with Double-A Frisco in '22, as the RoughRiders secured the Texas League championship.
Here’s a Q&A with Foscue as he prepares for his third professional season:
Q: How has the offseason been?
A: “It's been pretty crazy. I got married in October, went on our honeymoon a week after that. We got a dog. And then I moved to Arizona, and we moved all our stuff from my Nashville place to Arizona. So I did that all in a month. We've been in Arizona since. It's been a chaotic offseason. But since I've moved to Arizona, I've gotten a lot of work done that I really wanted to get done. And it's been pretty successful.”
Q: Looking back to your 2022 season, how would you evaluate your performance? What are you looking forward to in 2023?
A: “I think I had a pretty good season. Actually, I stayed pretty consistent, the way I wanted to. I missed a lot of pitches early on in the year, but I finished strong and that's what I'm proud of myself for. I stayed pretty much healthy the whole year.
“Going into the '23 season. I just want to continue working on my health, try to be healthy throughout the whole season and just try to get better every single day -- try to create value for myself as a player and moving over to third [base]. I know they want me to play a little bit of third now. So I'm just trying to create value for myself as a player, and I know I can help this organization in any way I can.”
Q: You played a little bit of third base in college. How comfortable do you feel over there now?
A: “I played third my freshman year. So when I made that transition over in the middle of this past year, it was pretty uncomfortable. It was definitely something I had to get better at. It's just like the footwork part of it. It's just a completely different deal. And since I hadn't played it in three or four years, it was just such a big, big change that I had to get used to it again. I have been working on it this offseason. I've taken a lot of ground balls at third, just half at second and half at third. So I'm just trying to get better any way I can, like I said.”
Q: How was winning the Texas League championship with Frisco?
A: “It was awesome. 2021 was my first full pro season. And that season, I had to learn a lot about creating relationships with guys on the team, because it's so different from college. So in 2022, I got to get to know the guys way more. And since we won the championship, it was just way more special because you hang out with the guys off the field and it was such a cool, cool experience to be able to win something in pro ball.”
Q: Do you like to set expectations going into a season?
A: I definitely set expectations for myself. I set goals for myself every year. It's all about a vision for me. Obviously, I have a goal and I tried to accomplish that goal and I do everything I can to accomplish that. I work every single day. I don't really like to discuss my expectations. But I definitely set some for myself.”
