Year Review: Kumar Rocker

Kumar Rocker had a special year for the Texas Rangers. He spent half of the year recovering from Tommy John Surgery, when he did return it was incredible.

ACL Rangers

Rocker threw two innings in first start back. He allowed two hits with a single run coming on a home run and three strikeouts with no walks. This was an encouraging sign for the Rangers that he was even able to throw before the year had ended.

He followed this up with two more starts in the Arizona Complex League. Rocker went five innings with nine hits, seven runs, four earned runs, one walk and eight strikeouts. Even though those stats didn’t jump off the stat sheet, the Rangers decided that it was time to send him to Double A. Their reasoning was likely due to the eleven strikeouts to the one walk showing that Rocker had control of his pitches and could get hitters out. Rocker’s best baseball was still ahead of him.

Frisco Roughriders (Double A)

Rocker was sharp in his first game. He went three strong innings with just a singular hit and four strikeouts. Rocker built on this performance as he complied 16.2 in his next four starts. He allowed nine hits and only a single run while striking out 25 batters and walking three. This showed the Rangers that he was too good for Double A and he soon earned the promotion to Triple A.

Round Rock Express (Triple A)

Rocker’s first start in Triple A was his best start of the year. Rocker went a season high five innings with only a hit against him. He was scoreless with no walks and racked up 10 k’s. This was no easy task as he faced off against the Dodger’s triple A team, which is an incredibly stacked team.

He followed it up with another good start. Another five inning start with three hits and two runs against him. Rocker blanked them on free passes allowing zero walks to pair with eight strikeouts. That was enough for the Rangers and they decided to call Kumar Rocker.

Texas Rangers

Rocker made his MLB debut against the Seattle Mariners in T Mobile Park. Rocker got the best of the Mariners with four strong innings with three hits, one run which came on full count fastball that caught too much of the plate to Justin Turner. He struck out seven batters and walked two. He showed the ability to work through traffic, he had runners on the corners with no outs in the first inning. He could have easily folded, but he showed how good he is. He struck out Raleigh and Arozarena, then got Raley to line out.

Rocker had a tougher time in his next two starts against the Blue Jays and the Athletics. He gave up nine hits with four runs with four walks to go with seven strikeouts. He was still good in these games, but the high amount of games finally seemed to catch up to Rocker and wear him down. However, this was still a great year for him and better than Rangers’ fans could have imagined.

Outlook

It is unsure of where Rocker will start his year in 2025. He could hold down the end of the rotation or he could start in Triple A. The other pitching options are Jacob DeGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, Cody Bradford, Tyler Mahale, Dane Dunning, and his former college teammates Jack Leiter.

If I would have to take a guess, I think that Kumar Rocker will hold down the fourth or the fifth spot in the Rangers’ rotation. Rangers’ fans should be really excited with the potential that he has and the Rangers haven’t had a pitching prospect this great in a while.