Tate Makes Move To Texas

ARLINGTON—Dillon Tate spent three years at UC Santa Barbara, living off campus with grown-up responsibilities over his final two years.

Despite that and even after his first half-season of professional baseball, the fourth overall pick of the 2015 draft decided he has more growing up to do.

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To that end, Tate picked up from Southern California and moved to Dallas-Fort Worth all by his lonesome this offseason. All aspects of being an adult fell into the 21-year-old’s lap, in addition to having to solve how to get to the major leagues.

“It’s just helping me grow up a little bit more, to be honest,” Tate said. “Moving away from my home in California and just starting to be an adult a little bit more. Everything was right here, and it just fell into place.”

Though his debut season was limited to only nine innings at short-season Spokane and low Class A Hickory, Tate learned the importance of staying healthy physically and mentally. He ran into that in his debut.

He walked three batters in his first professional inning on June 26 but managed a scoreless frame. The Rangers, though, shut him down with a biceps fatigue, and he didn’t pitch again for five weeks. His workouts this winter are geared toward getting his 6-foot-2 frame in better shape, but without causing his body to break down.

After his layoff, Tate didn’t walk a batter over his final eight innings to end his season and allowed only one run on a solo homer. That’s what a fourth overall pick is supposed to do, but Tate doesn’t see himself as a top draft pick anymore.

His new mindset should serve him well.

“I’ve moved past that,” said Tate. “The draft is over, and I’m in the mix with everyone now. It doesn’t matter where we were drafted. We’re all trying to get to the same place, and we’re all competing.”

RANGERS ROUNDUP

• The Rangers used the Winter Meetings in Nashville to find their manager for high Class A High Desert—former all-star Howard Johnson, who lives in Nashville. He was the Mariners’ big league hitting coach in 2014 and part of 2015.

• James Jones, who was non-tendered in November, signed a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training and expects to make the Opening Day roster. The Rangers want two outfielders on their bench capable of playing center, and he also would give them options as a lefty bat.