Sebastian Walcott was swinging a hot bat last week, but even that wasn’t enough to grab Texas League Player of the Week honors.
The Texas Rangers’ No. 1 prospect hit .381/.458/.857 over five games against Amarillo, launching three home runs and driving in four runs. The surge wasn’t just a one-week spike, either. Walcott has homered in five of his last seven games, which normally would put him in the spotlight for a weekly award in Double-A Frisco.
This time, though, the bar was absurdly high.
San Antonio Missions outfielder Braedon Karpathios took the honor instead after a monster week for the San Diego Padres affiliate. An undrafted free agent who played at Harford Community College in Maryland, Karpathios went 14-for-22, good for a .636 average, with three doubles, two home runs and 13 RBIs. According to MILB.com, those 13 RBIs were the most in Double-A baseball last week.
That kind of line is hard for anyone to top, and it made Karpathios San Antonio’s first weekly award winner for 2026.
Walcott still has two weeks left in his season, which was shortened by surgery on his right UCL in February. Even with that setback, he was back at the plate by the All-Star Break.
He’s still working as a designated hitter, but there is hope he could get back into the field before the season ends. The Rangers could also send him to the Arizona Fall League if they want him to keep piling up at-bats.
The reason he hasn’t returned to the field yet is simple: his right arm still needs time to build back up so he can throw across the diamond again. It follows a path similar to other players who’ve gone through the same kind of procedure, including Philadelphia’s Bryce Harper and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani.
The Rangers’ top international signing before the 2023 season enters this week hitting .324/.406/.625 with nine home runs and 19 RBIs. He still has a chance to pass his single-season career high of 13 home runs, set last year in 124 games. This year, he has played in just 34 games.
Frisco’s regular season ends with one final series, a six-game road trip at Wichita beginning Tuesday. The RoughRiders already locked up the first-half playoff berth in Texas League play, and their division series is set to begin Sept. 15 on the road.
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