Kumar Rocker Pitches Toward Top 100, Rangers' 2025 Plans

Image credit: (Photo by Eddie Kelly / ProLook Photos)

As Kumar Rocker walked off the mound on Wednesday night, it was hard not to think back to June 2019.

As the College World Series wrapped up with Vanderbilt celebrating a national title, Rocker looked like the best pitcher in the U.S. who wasn’t pitching in the major leagues.

He’s looking like that once again. In his Triple-A debut, Rocker struck out 10 of the 16 batters he faced. He allowed just one hit (on a comebacker that hit him) in five innings.

Rocker’s dominance continued what he showed in Double-A. In his five Double-A starts, Rocker allowed just nine hits, three walks and one run in 19.2 innings. He struck out 29. In Double-A and Triple-A this year, Rocker has a 0.36 ERA, a .119 opponents average and a 44.8% strikeout percentage.

As good as the numbers are, Rocker’s stuff has been better. He’s sitting at 97-98 mph with his fastball and touching 100 mph. His mid-80s power slider/curve (it has a slider’s power but the straight downward break of a curveball) passes every aspect of the eye test, but its results barely seem credible. Since he reached Double-A, he’s getting swings and misses on nearly 40% of his breaking ball. The median swing and miss rate for sliders in the minors is 16%.

In other words, Rocker looks again like the dominant pitcher who vaulted onto the national stage as a freshman at Vanderbilt in 2019.

Five years ago, Rocker became nationally famous by putting together a stretch of dominance that is rarely seen in college baseball. He threw a 19-strikeout no-hitter in an do-or-die Super Regional game against Duke. He then allowed one run in six innings to beat Mississippi State in Omaha, and followed it up by allowing one run in 6.1 innings while striking out 11 in a do-or-die CWS finals game against Michigan.

And until now, he has struggled to regain that level of dominance. The coronavirus pandemic derailed his 2020 season. In 2021, he showed flashes of that greatness, but the quality of his stuff varied from outing to outing. The Mets drafted him No. 10 that year, but lowered their offer after a post-draft medical.

Rocker declined to sign. He went to pitch in the Frontier League for a few showcase starts before the Rangers drafted him third overall in the 2022 draft. Rocker made his pro debut in the Arizona Fall League, where he looked rusty and wild.

After six starts at High-A Hickory in 2023, Rocker was shut down and had Tommy John surgery. While that was a setback, it seems to have served as a fulcrum point for his bounceback.

He’s healthy again. Coming back from the elbow surgery, Rocker’s stuff has a power and consistency that was sometimes lacking in 2021, 2022 and 2023. There were times in his final year at Vanderbilt where he’s sit at 90-91 mph for innings, even if there were other times that he’d touch 99 mph. This year, his fasbtall is sitting 1-2 mph harder than he maxed out at in 2023.

The added velocity makes his fastball play better. It also added even more power to his already impressive breaking ball. No one hit Rocker’s breaking ball in college, and pro hitters aren’t having any more luck. Synergy Sport data had hitters hitting .071/.113/.071 against his slider this year.

Prior to the season, Rocker hadn’t been on a mound consistently in three seasons. He faced questions about whether he could regain his previous level of dominance.

Now, he looks like one of the best pitchers in the minor leagues, and one who should play a significant role in the Rangers’ big league plans in 2025.