Sam Huff didn’t leave anything to chance. The right-handed slugger got ahold of one Friday at the Rangers’ Arizona Complex League facility in Surprise (where Huff was sent on a rehab assignment), hammering a towering, moonshot to left field off Padres rookie-leaguer Javier Chacon. According to Rangers Player Development on Twitter, Huff’s two-run shot traveled an astonishing 511 feet with an exit velocity of 115 mph.
We know the 23-year-old catcher can send the ball for a ride when he makes contact (a whopping 32.9 percent of his minor-league at-bats have resulted in strikeouts). Huff, the Rangers’ No. 2 prospect and 60th overall according to MLB.com, socked three homers in his first taste of the big leagues last fall including two off Astros ace Jose Urquidy.
But even for a 6’5” mammoth like Huff, 511 feet is an almost unheard-of distance. In fact, the longest home run recorded in MLB’s Statcast Era, which began in 2015, belongs to Nomar Mazara, who, while playing for Texas in 2019 (it would appear the Rangers’ scouting department has a type), launched a 505-foot rocket that nearly cleared the right-field “home run porch” at Globe Life Park.
If Friday’s tape-measure blast was any indication, Huff’s recovery from an April knee injury (he had minor surgery to remove a “loose body”) appears to be going just fine.
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