TAMPA — This is corrective, but not punitive.
On Wednesday, in the most critical moment of his return to the Rangers’ rotation, Kumar Rocker failed to properly cover first base, failed to realize that another runner was still circling the bases and failed to show up afterward to explain where everything went wrong. On Thursday, the Rangers optioned him back to Triple-A Round Rock. Not because of any of those specific moments, but because it’s become abundantly clear he needs more time in the final stages of refinement necessary to be a top-flight major league starter.
The outing Wednesday only reaffirmed most of those concerns, which were present before he went on the injured list five weeks ago. His pitch mix was a little too predictable; it still is. His ability to hold runners was lacking; still is. Fielding his position was an issue and remains so.
To watch it all play out, you’d almost think Rocker is full of raw talent, but with little real practical pitching experience. And you know what: You’d be right.
“Kumar has a bright future ahead of him, but there is more development needed for him to have the type of success we envision at the Major League level,” President of Baseball Operations Chris Young told The Dallas Morning News. “With more innings and repetition he will continue to improve.”
To his point, we present Thursday’s starter Jack Leiter. Listen, it’s almost impossible to write about Rocker without citing Leiter. The two were teammates and rotation mates at Vanderbilt. They were both drafted in the same year and, at 25, both are the same age. But for all of those commonalities, there is a giant discrepancy in their professional experience. It matters.
Leiter began Thursday’s game with 341 professional innings, the first 250 or so, of which were notoriously inconsistent. This season? Well, he’s at least in the Rookie of the Year conversation.
Now, compare him to Rocker, who didn’t sign with the New York Mets after being drafted 10th overall in 2021 due to a medical disagreement and then missed most of the previous two seasons recovering from elbow surgery. Rocker’s shaky 3 ⅓ innings Wednesday gave him a total of 106 pro innings. Half of them have been spent on rehab assignments and another 30% in the majors. Not exactly a great learning environment. The price of trying to win and develop simultaneously. For now, the Rangers will separate the two. They will try to win in the majors; they will let Rocker focus on development in the minors.
“He’s just got to continue to make progress in all phases of the game, as far as pitching goes,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “That’s your approach to hitters, reading swings and all the little peripherals that pitchers need to do. I’m talking about holding runners, fielding your position, game awareness; those things.
“He’s missed a lot of time on the mound because of the surgery and doesn’t have a ton of innings. And we’ve sped him up pretty good. It takes time. He needs reps out there, but also [needs to do] all the little things. They need to become second nature.”
For the record, these were the fundamental mistakes on Wednesday: With two runs having already scored in the inning and the Rangers trailing 3-0, Rocker was late in his break from the mound to first base on a grounder to the right side. When he got the feed from Jake Burger, he was still a stride away from first base and the runner beat him, allowing a fourth run to score. Rocker compounded the issue by taking several more long strides after the play before realizing another runner was attempting to score. By then, he was almost on the edge of the outfield and his throw home was late. In a one-run loss, the two runs on the infield grounder ended up being critical.
There are specific drills to address those concerns. At times, they may get tedious. And, at others, they may certainly feel punitive. But there is a method.
The bigger concern may be that Rocker must also learn to trust his stuff a little more. Perhaps it seems like he trusts his fastball too much, but that’s only because he hasn’t developed a discernible third pitch. He throws both a cutter and a slider, but they are often confused with one another due to similar movement and characteristics and the speed differentiation isn’t great enough within a game to make hitters think too much. His profile also says he throws both a four-seam and a two-seam fastball, but there isn’t a great difference vertically where the pitch lands or extreme movement. So, they often play the same. It doesn’t matter how many different pitches a pitcher says he throws, but rather how many different looks batters get.
On Wednesday, the Statcast computers read it as a cutter because it was a bit harder (91 mph) than the slider, which has usually been between 84 and 86 mph. It didn’t really matter to Tampa Bay hitters, who saw a 96 mph fastball and the cutter/slider the first time through the lineup. The second time around began with four straight hits. There was nothing else to turn to. The second time through the lineup against him this year, batters are hitting .429 with a 1.122 OPS.
Well, we should acknowledge he threw two changeups. One induced a swing. It left the ballpark. Wasn’t a terrible pitch. It was at the bottom of the zone, but it was 91 mph and didn’t have a ton of movement for deception. Of the 66 pitches he threw, 62 were the fastball or cutter/slider.
As a comp, let’s go back to Leiter for a moment, because it’s inevitable. A year ago, Leiter threw his four-seam fastball 51% of the time. He’s dropped that to 28% this year. He has diversified his repertoire and gotten results.
“Everything was pretty hard last night,” Bochy said. “The change can be a big pitch for him, but it was pretty hard. It’s not too far off from the velocity of the slider. So, it’s also about varying your speeds at times, especially the second and third times around.
“Unless you have an outlier pitch, having a third and fourth pitch for a starter is critical. The hitter has got more to think about up there, and you can get them off a certain pitch you want to throw. He had a big fastball last night, but if you continue to throw everything hard, the hitters have a reference point.”
They are issues that need attention. The best place to do that is in the minor leagues. So on Thursday, the Rangers took a corrective measure, not a punitive one.
Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.