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Rangers To Promote Kumar Rocker

By Steve Adams | September 9, 2024 at 3:06pm CDT

The Rangers are promoting top pitching prospect Kumar Rocker to the majors, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. The No. 3 overall pick from the 2022 draft will make his major league debut and start Thursday’s game against the Mariners, per the report. Texas will need to formally select Rocker’s contract to add him to the 40-man roster prior to that debut appearance.

News of Rocker’s call to the big leagues comes just two days after manager Bruce Bochy downplayed the chances of him pitching in the majors this season. That was followed a day later by GM Chris Young stating that a promotion of Rocker was still under consideration. Now, in what’ll be just his 17th total appearance since being drafted, Rocker will toe the rubber on a major league mound.

Rocker’s journey to the majors has been an odd one. He and Jack Leiter were star teammates at Vanderbilt University and widely considered to be in the mix for the top overall selection in the 2021 draft. Leiter went second overall — to the Rangers, of course — while Rocker “slipped” to the tenth pick, held by the Mets. New York ultimately did not sign Rocker, citing concerns over his physical.

Rather than return to college, Rocker signed with the independent Tri-City ValleyCats of the Frontier League. He retained his draft eligibility but was not seen as a consensus top-10 pick the second time around. Reactions to the Rangers’ selection of Rocker with the No. 3 pick in 2022 ranged from surprised to stunned. Rocker looked sharp in his first six starts at the High-A level the season following his selection, but he suffered an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery and knocked him until July of the current season.

Since returning, Rocker has rewarded the Rangers’ faith in spades. He made three shaky starts with the Rangers’ Rookie-level affiliate in the Arizona Complex League but has since gone on an utter tear, obliterating minor league lineups and forcing his way into the Rangers’ plans sooner than anyone would’ve reasonably expected after he went under the knife last year.

Rocker skipped over High-A this season and went right from the ACL to Double-A. In five starts there and another two with Triple-A Round Rock, he’s pitched 29 2/3 innings of 0.91 ERA ball with a laughably dominant 47-to-4 K/BB ratio. He’s fanned 44.3% of his opponents against a minuscule 3.8% walk rate. He’s yielded all of one home run during that run of seven starts. In his two Triple-A outings, he’s fanned 18 hitters against one walk in ten innings.

Rocker’s meteoric rise through the Rangers’ system means that he and Leiter will now be reunited not just as teammates but as rotation-mates in the major leagues. The Rocker/Leiter pairing will give Texas fans a potential glimpse of the future — a silver lining near the end of an otherwise disappointing season where the Rangers never seemed to be a true contender to defend last year’s World Series crown. Leiter certainly hasn’t staked a claim to a long-term rotation spot just yet, but he’s looked better in his three recent starts than he did in a trio of spot starts earlier this season when he appeared overmatched.

Depending on how the final few weeks go for Leiter and Rocker, one or both exciting young hurlers could more convincingly force his way into the Rangers’ early 2025 plans. It’s unlikely Texas would simply pencil both into the rotation and bank on a full season of starts, but the former NCAA standouts are now both squarely in the short-term plans for the organization. Next year’s rotation will be fronted by Jacob deGrom, Tyler Mahle and Jon Gray, health permitting, and it’s possible righty Nathan Eovaldi will be back as well. He’ll trigger a $20MM player option once he completes nine more innings, but given how well he’s pitched this season he’ll also likely turn that down and return to the open market. Righty Dane Dunning and lefty Cody Bradford are also in the mix for starts next season.

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Newsstand Texas Rangers Top Prospect Promotions Transactions Kumar Rocker

Mets Acquire Eddy Alvarez
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Mets Designate Pablo Reyes, Select Eddy Alvarez
View Comments (44)
Post a Comment

44 Comments

  1. User 1939973770

    12 months ago

    hope he gets… rocked

    2
    Reply
    • The Ranger Fan

      12 months ago

      Texas has about 6 games against Seattle in the next couple weeks, I see them playing spoiler and knocking Seattle out. It’s gonna be interesting because DeGrom and Scherzer coming back as well.

      3
      Reply
      • User 1939973770

        12 months ago

        Good call. Y’all have arguably the best manager in the last 30 years. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this happens and y’all go back to back.

        Reply
  2. holecamels35

    12 months ago

    Because bringing up Leitwr quickly worked SO well.

    2
    Reply
    • kscheer

      12 months ago

      Leiter sucked in the minors….Kumar has dominated since he came back from TJ. Not comparable at all

      13
      Reply
      • Blackpink in the area

        12 months ago

        Rocker has 64 career minor league innings. That’s a very small sample size to draw conclusions from.

        3
        Reply
        • Blue Baron

          12 months ago

          Blackpink: Mike Morgan and others have have come up after pitching zero minor league innings.

          1
          Reply
        • Blackpink in the area

          12 months ago

          Anything is possible. But to say Leiter sucked and Rocker has been great isn’t telling the whole story.

          1
          Reply
        • johnrealtime

          12 months ago

          We can all agree that one has nothing to do with the other. Any implication that they do is just narrative

          2
          Reply
        • padam

          12 months ago

          But he “obliterated” the minors.

          Reply
    • JoeBrady

      12 months ago

      The timing for his last call-up was correct. He had a 20/2 K/W in 9.1 IPs. At worse, a few meaningless September starts will improve his experience.

      4
      Reply
  3. jmaggio76

    12 months ago

    as a Mets fan, lol… this should be fun. I expect this fella will do quite well. degrom and scherzer are back too, I believe… so the ex-mets will be making quite a showing down in Texas this week.

    2
    Reply
  4. Canuckleball

    12 months ago

    Someone should have some White Castle burgers in the locker room when he walks in… so he doesn’t have to go there.

    1
    Reply
    • NashvilleJeff

      12 months ago

      @Canuckleball: Some humor there in that there’s a White Castle about a mile away from the Vandy campus here in Nashville.

      3
      Reply
      • chiefnocahoma1

        12 months ago

        How would you know, Nashville Jeff?!?

        1
        Reply
        • NashvilleJeff

          12 months ago

          @chief: I worked near Vandy for years. Passed by that gut bomb burger dump hundreds of times, lol. I wouldn’t feed White Castle or Krystal to a stray cat, lol.

          3
          Reply
        • Tigers3232

          12 months ago

          Good call Nashville, no sense wasting any Pimp Steaks on stray cats.

          1
          Reply
    • mrmackey

      12 months ago

      Unless they acquire Harold Ramirez he probably won’t be going there.

      Reply
    • padam

      12 months ago

      White Castle burgers cure cancer. Flushes everything. Everything.

      Reply
      • lesterdnightfly

        12 months ago

        You misspelled “cause” for “cure”.

        3
        Reply
  5. Jackalopal

    12 months ago

    This is gonna be a very interesting rotation next year

    1
    Reply
  6. truthlemonade

    12 months ago

    Does anyone know of any other MLB players of South Asian heritage?

    2
    Reply
    • YankeesBleacherCreature

      12 months ago

      Tommy Pham is part SE Asian. I’m sure there are more.

      1
      Reply
      • truthlemonade

        12 months ago

        Sure, there are many American MLB players of full or partial East or Southeast Asian heritage. But will Rocker be the first player of South Asian heritage? Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Sri Lanka/Nepal? This population has absolutely exploded in the US since 2000.

        2
        Reply
    • Canuckleball

      12 months ago

      Arjun Nimmala was a first round pick of the Jays, and is a first generation Indian-American, although he’s currently at single A. He’s a good prospect and could actually be in the majors in 2 to 3 years.

      2
      Reply
    • schwender

      12 months ago

      There haven’t been any from India, specifically. But there’s a movie called Million Dollar Arm about two Indian players in the Pirates organization. Up until recently, one of those guys was a wrestler with the WWE (Veer Mahaan).

      4
      Reply
    • Enigma313

      12 months ago

      Yu Darvish is half Persian (Iranian). His dad is Persian. He identifies as Japanese.

      5
      Reply
  7. BigGarg

    12 months ago

    Might as well. Nothing to lose by giving him a late season audition for a losing team.

    1
    Reply
  8. User 3594734386

    12 months ago

    Yep. Good move. Season over. Little pressure. Nice spot. And small sample size for sure but how ’bout dem k and bb stats. Geez.

    3
    Reply
    • JackStrawb

      12 months ago

      K’ing hitters (like K’ing a lot as a hitter) requires one of the smallest sample sizes to be indicative of future performance.

      BB’s don’t mean nearly as much, either way. Defensive numbers often take a few years to even out, or ‘why scouts still matter.’

      Interesting game, this “base ball.”

      Reply
  9. Acoss1331

    12 months ago

    Rocker coming to rock hitters’s bats at big league level!

    Reply
  10. Logjammer D"Baggagecling

    12 months ago

    “What kind of name is Kumar anyway?” “What is that like 5 Os and 4 q’s” lol. Classic Harold and Kumar GTWC

    Reply
  11. sad tormented neglected mariners fan

    12 months ago

    Zamn a rotation of Jacob mahle rocker eovaldi is a good start, even better if leiter somehow refinds his previous success

    Reply
  12. Cohen's _Wallet

    12 months ago

    Good luck to him. Hope he has a great MLB career.

    1
    Reply
  13. FarmCatArmy

    12 months ago

    Sometimes u feel like nut(sometimes don’t)

    Reply
  14. mrmackey

    12 months ago

    Rangers need to pick up Harold Ramirez now and partner with White Castle.

    1
    Reply
  15. Ok Yankees Fan

    12 months ago

    Hopefully he can control his temper when he comes to pitch at Shea Stadium.

    1
    Reply
  16. QuattroKilla

    12 months ago

    The people saying that the season is over, havent been paying much attention to texas over the last 2 weeks, they are only 6 games out and have the easiest schedule among teams vying for a spot. 5 teams ahead of them and all of them have 18 games left and they all have at least 13 games against playoff teams. texas only has 9.

    Reply
    • Go Go Power Rangers

      12 months ago

      I’m a delusional fan as well but…

      3
      Reply
    • lesterdnightfly

      12 months ago

      This just in:

      Generalissimo Franco is still dead.
      The Rangers’ season is over.

      1
      Reply
    • JackStrawb

      12 months ago

      @QuattroKilla Among the things you’re missing is that Boston, Seattle, Detroit, and the Rays are also ahead of Texas in the race for the last card, and any one of those 4 can beat out Texas just by playing as well as Texas does.

      Might be why Baseball-Reference has the Rangers as 3 in 1,000 (three in one thousand) to make the postseason.

      THREE IN ONE THOUSAND!

      Reply
  17. Rumors2godsears

    12 months ago

    What’s most impressive is that ERA in the pacific coast league.

    3
    Reply

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