Texas Rangers lefthanded starting pitcher Dalton Pence has been named the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week for the week of August 3-9. Pence threw five shutout innings for the Round Rock express in their game at Sacramento — a notoriously hitter-friendly park — while allowing just two hits and one walk, striking out six.
Pence was the Rangers’ 11th round pick out of the University of North Carolina in 2024 as a redshirt sophomore who had worked almost exclusively in relief in his two seasons
pitching for the Tar Heels after missing 2022 due to Tommy John surgery. The Rangers, seeing him as a potential rotation candidate, inked him to a $350,000 bonus and had him make his professional debut in 2025 at low-A Hickory, where he generally threw two to three innings per appearance. He moved up to high-A Hub City half way through the year and in the final couple of months of the season started getting stretched out to something closer to a starter’s workload.
Pence has taken a big step forward in 2026. He started at Hub City, but was promoted after just five starts there, striking out 30 of 98 batters faced while walking just five and putting up a 2.59 ERA. 11 appearances for Frisco, covering 55 innings, so Pence log a 2.77 ERA with 61 strike outs, though his walk rate rose a little, as he issued 23 free passes. Pence had a rough go of it in his first start for Round Rock, allowing three runs in 1.2 innings against Reno, but clearly bounced back strong.
Pence came into the season as the #16 prospect on the Baseball America Texas Rangers list, and has moved up to #13 on the most recent rankings. MLB Pipeline has Pence at #8, though they haven’t included this year’s draftees on their most recent rankings.
