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Christopher Boan is a writer with BetTexas.com, covering state issues. He has covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
Which AL West Team Has The Greatest Farm System Potential?
While last year’s World Series defense left a bit to be desired for the Texas Rangers, the year that was presented newfound opportunities for the Lone Star State’s other MLB franchise, with the Houston Astros winning the AL West in 2024. If only there had been Texas sports betting to get in on the action.
Last year, the Rangers finished third in the five-team division, at 78-84, while their rivals from the Space City went 88-73 to finish 3.5 games ahead of the Seattle Mariners in the AL West, earning the club their fourth straight division crown and seventh in the last eight years overall, while Texas still looks for their first AL West crown since 2016.
This year, oddsmakers from DraftKings Sportsbook have the Astros as their preseason favorite in the AL West, at +100, while the Rangers are third at +260, with the Mariners sandwiched in between at +250, while the Athletics (+2500) and Los Angeles Angels (+3500) round out the list in 2025.
Spring Training games are just a bit over a month away. Getting ready for the season, BetTexas.com was curious which teams in the AL West have the greatest potential for success in the coming years based on each franchise’s farm system. Using MLB.com, FanGraphs.com, and Baseball-Reference.com, we created a ranking system factoring in the average future value of the top 10 prospects for each team, overall farm system ranking, and number of players in the top 100 prospects.
Ranking AL West Farm System Potential
Rank | Team | Score |
1 | Seattle Mariners | 67.5 |
2 | Oakland Athletics | 56.4 |
3 | Texas Rangers | 51 |
4 | Los Angeles Angels | 48.6 |
5 | Houston Astros | 47 |
Which AL West Franchise Has The Best Farm System?
With a total score of 67.5 points, the Seattle Mariners wound up winning the crown when it came to the AL West’s top farm system, beating out the A’s (56.4), Rangers (51), Angels (48.6) and Astros (47).
To use the farm system rankings from FanGraphs.com as an example, the analytics-driven baseball website has Seattle atop their AL West farm system rankings with a total value of $188 million, ranking ninth overall, while the Rangers (22nd, $137 million), A’s (25th, $115 million), Astros (29th, $96 million) and Angels (30th, $76 million) round out the list out West in 2025.
All five are well short of the MLB’s top farm systems on FanGraph’s rankings, with the Tampa Bay Rays ($271 million), Los Angeles Dodgers ($248 million), Boston Red Sox ($240 million), Chicago White Sox ($230 million) and Cubs ($220 million) making up the MLB’s top five this season.
USA Today photo by Kiyoshi Mio.
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