The Rangers optioned rookie starter Kumar Rocker to Triple-A Round Rock before tonight’s game against Tampa Bay. That creates an active roster spot for reliever Chris Martin, who was reinstated from the 15-day injured list. Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News reported the moves before the club announcement.
Rocker just returned from a month-long IL stint. He’d been bothered by a shoulder impingement that knocked him out after five appearances. The former third overall pick had a tough April, allowing more than eight earned runs per nine with a diminished 17% strikeout rate. He was hit hard again last night, giving up five runs on six hits and a pair of walks over 3 1/3 innings in a 5-4 loss to Tampa Bay.
The 6’5″ righty also had an ugly mental mistake in yesterday’s game. Jake Mangum was hitting with runners on second and third and two outs in the third inning. He hit a ground-ball to first baseman Jake Burger. Rocker was late off the mound to cover the bag, allowing Mangum to beat it for an RBI infield single. Making matters worse, Rocker continued jogging up the first base line after Burger had flipped him the ball, which allowed the runner from second to score as well.
Manager Bruce Bochy was blunt about the play postgame. “The biggest (mistake) is the fundamental of covering first base. The fundamentals got us tonight. That’s a basic play. It could have saved us two runs,” the veteran skipper told the Texas beat. “He just forgot the situation and the other man on third and it compounded the damage. And that’s the difference in the ball game.”
GM Chris Young told Grant that the demotion was not a punitive decision, instead suggesting that Rocker needs further development time in the minors. It’s difficult to argue given his results this season. The 25-year-old has very little minor league experience. He underwent Tommy John surgery early in 2023, his first full professional season. That sidelined him until late last year, when he dominated minor league hitters to earn his MLB debut. He made only 10 minor league appearances, though, tossing 36 2/3 frames overall. He’s made just three career Triple-A starts — one of which was a rehab outing after this year’s shoulder injury.
This temporarily drops Texas to a four-man rotation of Jacob deGrom, Tyler Mahle, Patrick Corbin and Jack Leiter. They’re without Nathan Eovaldi until at least next Friday as he battles a triceps issue. They’re off on Monday, so they could get by with a four-man rotation if Eovaldi returns after a minimal stint. They could otherwise use a bullpen game or potentially reselect Dane Dunning onto the 40-man roster if they need to buy some time.
Kevin Parada.
I was gonna say…. Not familiar with Kevin Parada and don’t see him on their top 30 prospects (for a number 11 pick a few years removed from being drafted), for approximately the same cost. Any thoughts here?
Time to call Brewers about Civale maybe for Foscue or Duran or Smith
I really don’t know who the hell Civale is, but trading any of those guys for a number 5 pitcher during a smallish blip in the rotation is astoundingly stupid. I’m glad you’re not the one making decisions.
You don’t know who Civale is? Seriously? Just a casual fan?
Guy tried to trade Quintana to the brewers for Brety Baty.
No, he tried to trade Quintana to the Mets for Baty.
The rangers need hitting, not pitching
“The Mets won”..Dr. Scott Boras said Rocker was “healthy”, but he never said he was any good.
He was off his Rocker yesterday.
Looks like a wasted 5 million dollar signing bonus
Nah, bonus wasn’t wasted. It bought him and his friend Harold a lot of White Castle sliders. Fed Scott Boras’s whole office for a month.
To be fair, I don’t think the Rangers are losing sleep over 5 million dollars if they just optioned him.
It’s nice to hear from a genius who knows everything
Wasted by the rangers
Dr. Scott Boras 😂
I thought a mental mistake was something you made, not had.
Lost tonight’s game on the same play. Ground ball to 2B that SS playing 1B went after ball when he should have stayed at 1B. Winning run on 2B scored on what should’ve been 3rd out. Who gets sent out now?
Kevin Parada is 23 years old hitting .189 in double a has never been good his entire minor league career and is fastly approaching not making the bigs at all wouldn’t say this is anywhere close to a win
Truly a shame what Kumars career path is starting to look like he was truly a special player at Vandy here’s hoping he can still carve out a decent career but I’d say we are approaching the point where we as fans have to finally accept he isn’t the same guy he was
The Mets drafted a red-flag Rocker instead of a healthy, athletic and future gold-glover, Sal Frelick.
Guess he’s not the closer, unlike the ace reporting here a few weeks ago
You guys apparently didn’t rocker at year’s end last year when he’s on
He’ll be fine
Kumar is 25 years old. 25. Plenty of time to figure things out.
Great minor league stats, but the Rangers only kept him in the minors for 71.2 IPs. And path was almost laughable. He had TJS then 19.2 IPs in AA, 10 in AAA, and then a promotion to the majors. The Rangers must have thought he was just about MLB-ready when they drafted him.
With another ballclub with competent coaches that can resolve Rocker’s pitching woes.
Mike Maddux is one of the best pitching coaches in the game. He has Tyler Mahle looking like a Cy Young candidate and Patrick Corbin looking like a viable major league starter again. And that’s saying nothing of Jack Leiter’s turnaround.
Rocker’s woes aren’t on the Rangers coaches. He’s just got to get better. His fastball command is awful, and he doesn’t have a starter’s pitch mix currently. It’s early yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a move to the bullpen is in his future.
A couple of thoughts.
1-Boras/Rocker should’ve accepted the NYM offer and have gotten surgery immediately. They wasted 1+ years of his career.
2-I find it interesting that the NYM drafted him #10, and then were so concerned about his arm that they didn’t sign him. But the Rangers then drafted him #3 overall the following year. So he took a year off and improved 7 slots despite the injury?
Must have been taught fielding by Will Craig.
Cleveland made a mistake in a similar situation when they drafted Brady Aiken with their first pick in draft several years ago. He had a suspect arm that made teams shy away, but the Guardians swung big and came up bupkis when Aiken had TJ and never pitched in the big leagues. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes the blues get a hold of you, just when you thought you had made it.”