David Davalillo’s Impressive Control, Track Record Make Rangers RHP A Sleeper Prospect To Remember
Image credit: David Davalillo (Photo by Bill Mitchell)
For most minor league pitchers, development requires learning how to cope with bad outings. Those nightmarish innings where nothing goes right are part of pro ball and something every pitcher has to learn to contend with.
Well, unless you’re Rangers righthander David Davalillo.
At some point, he’ll surely have to learn that lesson, but as Davalillo begins the fourth year of his pro career, the Rangers’ No. 17 prospect has yet to feel what it’s like to get driven off the mound during a rough start.
Three starts into his 2025 season, Davalillo has a 0.79 ERA. He’s allowed just three hits in 11.1 innings, and he’s striking out 43.2% of all batters he faces.
But this isn’t a new development. Last year, Davalillo led the minors with a 1.88 ERA over 110 innings between Low-A Down East and High-A Hickory. In 37 appearances as a pro, he’s allowed four runs just once—an Aug. 4, 2023 two-inning start against the Dodgers in the Arizona Complex League. That’s the worst outing of his career.
Over the past two seasons, Davalillo has allowed three runs only three times in 25 appearances. He’s worked five or more innings with two or fewer runs allowed 13 times as a pro. And he’s done that despite never being allowed to throw more than 85 pitches.
In his most recent start against Bowling Green last Friday, Davalillo held the Hot Rods hitless for five innings while striking out nine. The only thing keeping it from having been a perfect five innings of work was a wild pitch that allowed Emilien Pitre to reach on a strikeout.
Davalillo isn’t overpowering, but he’s remarkably effective because of his command and control. His 92-94 mph fastball can get swings and misses at the top of the zone late in counts because he otherwise pounds the bottom of the zone so consistently.
“The mentality is to attack the hitters, but make sure each pitch has a purpose,” Davalillo said in Spanish. “I’m always looking to implement something that I didn’t do in the earlier innings to throw them off and change the sequence which results in going deeper into games.”
Davalillo’s efforts to pitch with a purpose become pretty clear when you look at his pitch plot on Synergy Sports. In his first two starts of the season, he didn’t throw any non-fastball in the upper half of the strike zone (red denotes fastballs, dark blue are sliders, light blue dots are curveballs and gray/purple are split-changes):
Davalillo has yet to give up a hit to a righthanded hitter this year after holding them to a .502 OPS last season.
“Against righties, I was mainly working with the sinker in close to the hitter,” Davalillo said of his most recent start. “And then open up the zone with the slider, down and away. I finished with a slow pitch (curveball or changeup) to mess up their timing.”
Against lefties, the approach changes a bit. While he’s better against righthanded hitters, lefties are only hitting .158/.227/.158 against him this season.
“At the beginning of the at-bat, I used my fastball in, and then went down with my splitter,” Davalillo said. “And then try to finish it by expanding the zone.”
Davalillo was blessed to grow up around the game. His father, David, was a minor league infielder in the Angels system who went on to coach. His grandfather, Vic Davalillo, was a 16-year MLB veteran who won a Gold Glove and was an all-star in 1965.
David’s younger brother Gabriel signed with the Angels in January as a catcher. He ranks as the team’s No. 13 prospect.
“If I end up facing him, I’m going to do my best to strike him out,” Davalillo said. “But I would love to play with him at the same time. Him catching me is a dream.”
