Sharpening One Pitch Type Helped Rangers’ Aidan Curry Excel
The Rangers’ top upper-levels pitching prospects didn’t take as many steps forward this season as expected.
But at the lower levels, multiple pitchers had the kind of seasons the Rangers were waiting to see.
Among them is 21-year-old righthander Aidan Curry, who signed as a nondrafted free agent out of high school in the Bronx after the five-round 2020 draft.
Curry said that he was one of the most overmatched pitchers in pro ball when he ran up a 13.79 ERA in 15.2 innings during his 2021 pro debut in the Arizona Complex League.
His breakthrough was a few years in the making. In that time he grew into his body and learned how to pitch. One particular outing put him over the top, when an OK slider turned into a wipeout sweeper.
“It got me a lot of soft contact and swings and misses,” Curry said. “It came a long way in the offseason. For me it’s a little bit of a trial and error.
“It came out of nowhere this spring training. It started sweeping like crazy, and I was like, ‘What the heck is going on here?’ “
While the sweeper was a game-changer that helped Curry strike out 104 batters in 88.1 innings, most of them at Low-A Down East before a late-season bump to High-A Hickory, two years of eating everything in sight has helped add zip to his fastball.
The 6-foot-5 Curry, who turned 21 in July, said that he weighed 175 pounds in 2020 when he opted to sign with the Rangers rather than play college ball at Bucknell. He finished 2023 at 205 pounds.
A fastball that clocked in the mid-to-upper 80s in 2020 is now reading as fast as the mid 90s.
“I was a string bean coming out of high school,” said Curry, who finished with a 2.75 ERA. “(My mentality was to) eat until I feel like I have to throw up. I still feel like there’s a little more weight in there.”
RANGERS ROUNDUP
— First baseman Blaine Crim, who collected 58 extra-base hits and finished with an .891 OPS for Triple-A Round Rock, will continue playing this winter for Escogido of the Dominican League. Crim played the past two winters in Puerto Rico for Mayaguez, where in 2022 he won the league batting title.
— The Rangers opted against extending righthander Jack Leiter this offseason, determining that his workload during the regular season—85.1 innings plus the throwing he did while on the developmental list at Double A Frisco—will give him a good springboard into spring training. Leiter will again prepare for a new season at Vanderbilt.
