{"id":486350,"date":"2026-02-19T23:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/486350\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T23:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:17:10","slug":"gavin-collyer-has-heavily-impressed-at-rangers-camp-but-still-has-hurdles-to-make-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/486350\/","title":{"rendered":"Gavin Collyer has heavily impressed at Rangers camp, but still has hurdles to make roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

SURPRISE, Ariz. \u2014 What\u2019s the best way to impress a new manager in your first trip to big league training camp before exhibition games even start? Try a fastball that can reach 100 mph, a sweeper with a high spin rate that can be \u201cdevastating,\u201d per MLB Pipeline, and a deceptive arm slot to deliver it all. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat,\u201d Rangers<\/a> manager Skip Schumaker<\/a> said, \u201cwill open your eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did right-handed pitcher Gavin Collyer<\/a> \u2014 a late-round draft pick six years ago with a career 4.36 ERA in the minor leagues \u2014 get here? <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of failure throughout A-ball,\u201d Collyer said Thursday morning. \u201cAfter the 2022 season, I think I maybe topped out at 93 that year, and it was like, \u2018I\u2019ve got to figure something out or my career is over.\u2019 Everyone is throwing 96, 97. This is not going to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Collyer trained his arm to throw harder that winter with a diet of weighted balls, plyometric workouts and more intentional bullpen sessions. His velocity began to climb and so did he through the minor league ranks. Collyer pitched two seasons at High-A Hickory before he made his Double-A Frisco debut at the end of the 2024 season. Last year, which included a promotion to Triple-A Round Rock, his four-seam fastball ran 95-98 mph and paired well with a high-spin sweeper. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a sigh of relief,\u201d Collyer said. \u201cWhen you do get done with a live, and they say you\u2019re sitting 97, 98 \u2014 you just want to smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Lawrenceville, Ga. native has been among the buzziest names through a week plus of live bullpens and side sessions at his first major league camp. The Rangers selected Collyer in the 12th round of the 2019 draft, gave him a $585,000 bonus to woo him away from a Clemson scholarship and re-signed him to a minor league deal this winter when his first contract expired. <\/p>\n

He was a non-roster invite this spring<\/a> and will be among a host of veteran and internal minor leaguers who\u2019ll vie for one of the two or three jobs available in the Texas bullpen. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf he\u2019s around the zone,\u201d Schumaker said. \u201cHe\u2019s got elite swing and miss with a fastball, which you just don\u2019t see in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hurdle that Collyer will need to clear in order to solidify himself as a legitimate bullpen candidate this season is his walk rate, which Schumaker classified as \u201cnot healthy,\u201d and his ability to throw strikes. He walked 6.15 batters per nine innings at Frisco last season and threw only 57% of his strikes after his Round Rock promotion.<\/p>\n

Collyer added a low 90\u2019s cutter to his arsenal prior to last season and exclusively threw it to left-handed hitters. He wants to use it against both sides this season to get ahead in counts and set up his four-seam fastball and sweeper as \u201cthe two-strike, swing-and-miss pitches.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to get ahead,\u201d Collyer said. \u201cI\u2019ve got to get that first-pitch strike.\u201d<\/p>\n

It could get him far. <\/p>\n

Live Q&A: Rangers insider Evan Grant answers your questions from spring training<\/a>Rangers\u2019 Skip Schumaker reveals how lineup can bounce back, his biggest influences, more<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SURPRISE, Ariz. \u2014 What\u2019s the best way to impress a new manager in your first trip to big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[3035,49,48,462,11714,82,3992],"class_list":["post-486350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-brief","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-rangers","tag-sports","tag-texas-rangers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}