What Ever Happened to Former Top Prospect Willie Calhoun?

Willie Calhoun playing for the Texas Rangers, CCed by Liscense 2.0

Looking at where Willie Calhoun’s career stands now, you can either label him as a bust, given where his prospect ranking once stood – or you can say he was just good enough to make the Majors as a reserve player who never panned out as a full-time starter.

Calhoun was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the fourth round of the 2015 MLB Draft and would eventually find himself with the AAA Dodgers in 2017, hitting an impressive .298 for Oklahoma City. Calhoun’s prospect ranking was fourth on the Dodgers at the time when he was then shockingly traded to the Texas Rangers for all-star right hander Yu Darvish.

Calhoun made his Major League debut on September 12th, 2017, for Texas to begin what would be an up-and-down, injury-filled tenure in the Lone Star State. Going into the 2018 season, Calhoun was rated as the No. 36 prospect by Baseball America, and that would be his highest-rated overall ranking. Being used primarily as a DH, Calhoun would occasionally play in left, but provided rather shaky defense. Being in what would be a platoon role when not on the IL, Calhoun would only appear in more than half a regular season once with Texas when he appeared in 83 games in 2017. This would be a trademark over Calhoun’s career as he would average just 48 games per season over the course of the next six years. Despite appearing in the majors over an eight-year span, Calhoun would only accumulate just over 4 years of MLB service time. Now, Calhoun finds himself playing his age 30 season in the Mexican League in what has seen a sub .275 average in 80 games. 

Calhoun still has time to make a comeback to the majors, but has multiple factors working against a return. He’s already been out of the league for more than half a season after being an unsigned free agent after his DFA from the Angels. Defensively, he’s limited to DH or corner roles and has offensive stats well below replacement value, highlighted by a career .702 OPS. If Calhoun is able to close out the season strong in the Mexican League, he can potentially land on an MLB team in need of DH depth or as a low-risk minor league filer in 2026.