Ahlstrom's debut was for him and his brother

This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry’s Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

When the Rangers traded Jose Trevino to the Yankees during Spring Training of 2022, former president of baseball operations Jon Daniels said the two pitchers they got in return were: “One for now and one for later, so to speak.”

At the time, Albert Abreu made that year’s Opening Day roster, though he only lasted weeks with the club before he was designated for assignment.

And Robby Ahlstrom had yet to make his professional debut, after being selected in the seventh round of the 2021 Draft out of the University of Oregon.

That “later” that Daniels talked about all those years ago finally came to fruition this week. Ahlstrom was called up from Triple-A Round Rock on Monday and made his MLB debut two days later at Busch Stadium.

“It's been some ups and downs, and just figuring out who I am as a person, as a teammate, as a pitcher,” Ahlstrom told reporters in St. Louis. “It's been a lifelong dream. I don't think I really have many words for it. It hasn't fully set in. I don't really have the best answer for it right now.”

In Wednesday's loss, Ahlstrom retired all four batters he faced, collecting two strikeouts in the process.

“I thought he was outstanding,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “He sat 94-97, he was throwing strikes, slider was very effective. He got a big league strikeout -- a couple of them. That was awesome, he did a fantastic job.”

For Ahlstrom, it goes without saying that this was a dream come true.

From the time he was a kid, he just wanted to be big enough to play on the same team as his brother, Tommy, who is two years older.

Tommy never played past college. Robby finally got his opportunity.

“When he was done playing, I told him I'm going to do it for us,” Robby said. “I called him, quoted 'The Rookie' and said, ‘You have my sports coat? Apparently, there's a dress code in Arlington.’

"He got a good kick out of that. It was one of our favorite movies growing up. So he knew what I was getting at. It was pretty cool.”

Ahlstrom doesn’t hide that it’s taken him a long journey to get here. He was obviously an unfinished product when he got to the Rangers organization.

But he’s learned a lot on this journey.

“I feel like I've gotten a lot closer with my faith, with Jesus, and I think that's just allowing me to be free, be who I am, not try to be someone that I think someone else wants me to be,” he said, “and just be a better teammate, be a better guy around the clubhouse, just go about my work, knowing that if this didn't come true, I'd be OK with that.

“But now that it’s here, it’s pretty freaking cool.”

The 26-year-old lefty had appeared in 21 games for Round Rock this season, posting a 2.76 ERA, a 0.95 WHIP, a .185 opponent batting average and 10.13 K/9 rate in 29 1/3 innings.

When he was called up, he ranked among Pacific Coast League leaders (min. 25 IP) in WHIP (first), opponent on-base percentage (first, .241), opponent slugging (second, .269), opponent OPS (second, .510), K/BB ratio (second, 4.13), ERA (fourth) and opponent average (fourth).

The southpaw carries a career 14-18 record, 17 saves and a 3.70 ERA over 181 Minor League games (18 starts) spanning five seasons in the Rangers organization.

And while the debut had been front of mind, right now, he’s just focused on helping a Rangers pitching staff that has been in much need of reinforcements lately.

“Pitching-wise, I'm just trusting myself, trusting my strengths, not trying to do too much,” Ahlstrom said. “Again, not trying to be someone else or be a different pitcher. I’ve been finding out what works and figuring out how I can repeat that, and just fine-tune that.”