Texas Rangers to promote top prospect Kumar Rocker for MLB debut vs Mariners, but is he ready?

Chris Young has Rangers fans feeling like Charlie Brown on Halloween because finally at the big league level we got a rock you are locked on Rangers your daily Texas Rangers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day [Music] you are locked on to the World Series champion Texas Rangers I'm Bryce Patrick a cripplingly addicted Texas Rangers Fan covering this team for 11 seasons including all six as the founder and host of this podcast thank you all so much for making your first listen your first first listen every single day if you're not already you can follow me on Twitter at Bry Patrick you can follow the show at lockon Rangers Hit subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and on YouTube where the best way you can help grow the show is to comment nearly any single thing below now before we get into Kamar rocker making his MLB debut how the heck the Rangers are going to fit seven starting pitchers into the rotation and if rocker is actually ready for this opportunity this episode is brought to you by FanDuel now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a 3 week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV just visit fanduel.com to get started now on Sunday Rangers GM Chris Young told the media that he would not rule out the possibility of Kamar rocker making his MLB debut this season this was just two days after Bruce Boi said that Kamar rocker would not make his MLB debut this season that was on Friday Kamar rocker had his second AAA start on Friday night the Rangers thought about it thought about it some more and then 2 Days Later 3 days later after that second tripa start the Rangers officially announced that Kamar rocker will be headed up to the big leagues to make his MLB debut on Thursday in Seattle against the Mariners welcome to the freaking show Kamar rocker big leager he did it y'all he did it he is going to be a big leager on Thursday finally it is happening I have been shouting it from the rooftops for uh several weeks um just a few weeks ahead of it actually happening that rer was ready for this he's he's been ready for this basically from the second he got back from Tommy John surgery the second that he stepped onto a mound in doublea Frisco he has been just absolutely obliterating hitters I mean a 46 ER in 19 and 2/3 innings in double A a 180 erra in 10 innings in AAA with 18 strikeouts to just two earned runs one homer which did come in a very Homer friendly ballpark in Las Vegas Nevada um but still a great start to his uh I guess middle chapter whatever of his pro career whatever whatever this is the first fullish season of his professional career has been nothing short of Sensational the guy has been just absolutely unhitable he has not just knocked his way to the big leags he's not knocking on the door he busted that thing in broke the door frame kicked it down with those big strong legs of his and says I'm here I'm one of your best pitchers already put me in the gosh darn big leagues I don't care about the implications of the 40 man and not having to put somebody on there and protect yada yada yada it does not matter I am ready right now and any more starts that you have me throwing in Triple A will be wasted on those poor poor hitters that I'm going to make look absolutely stupid now those were not his direct words that is not something that Kamar Rucker would ever say but with his performance he has shown that he has been ready for the big leagues this is a great thing for Rangers fans a great thing to to just get him in the big leags I think he'll probably have around maybe three at I think most four starts at the big league level this year the Rangers have H three two more off days excuse me they're just coming off of one off day the Rangers have I believe 18 yes 18 more games so they will have a six-game road trip on the West Coast or I guess desert then West Coast four games in Seattle um after these two with the Diamondbacks day off seven six-game home stand three against the Blue Jays three against the Mariners then a day off and then their final road trip of the season three games in Oakland three games in Anaheim to finish out their regular season and uh the thing about the timing of this with rocker it it it's it's only happening now because the Rangers are out of it if the Rangers had forced their way into the conversation if the Rangers were anywhere near it anywhere near the postseason picture at even the later stages of August I don't think that rocker would have taken this long to come up because he's probably been one of their best options to have in the rotation for three weeks now or so um and because he is making his season debut on the big league roster on September 12th he will not be eligible for the postseason though the Rangers are almost certainly not making it there and there is also the Innings limits to consider rocker is coming off Tommy John surgery he has pitched 36 and 2/3 Innings so far this year 19 and 2/3 of those Innings have been in five starts in Frisco 10 of those Innings have been in the two starts in triaa Round Rock or with triaa round rock also had seven Innings of rehab assignment in the Arizona complex League um with three different games that he was pitching in there which was his rehab assignment so the Rangers are targeting about 50 innings for him if he has about five innings per start that would put him at 51 and 2/3 Innings anywhere within that five ining Mark of cushion um on either side of the 50 Innings limit so no more than 55 no fewer than 45 Innings this year is kind of where they are targeting for him but this is a great moment for the Rangers and for Rangers pitching development I mean you have three you will have three homegrown starters in your rotation the effectiveness of which is varies from starter to starter but the Rangers did it they've got three homegrown starters in the rotation guys who are capable Big League starters Jack the jury still out pretty confident in Kamar rocker being a competent big leager big league starting pitcher and I feel the same way even more so actually about Cody Bradford Bradford has been phenomenal this year and as of right now this week this is what the rotation is shaping up to look like you got nathany evaldi on Tuesday Cody Bradford on Wednesday Thursday is rocker day Friday is probably when Jacob deg Grom will make his season debut at the big league level then you have three more spots in that rotation to split between Jack ligher Max Scherzer and Andrew Heeney because yes Max Scherzer is coming back this season he is a guy who is fighting tooth and nail to get back on the mound to show hey I'm healthy I can keep doing this I want to keep doing this I mean if you're a 40-year-old pitching in a knockoff whatever kind of weird Jersey in Triple A in the middle of September trying to fight back to get one to maybe three more starts at the big league level this year I mean you could never question Max sherer's desire but having seven guys in rotation even with expanded rosters is a little difficult to fit in but the biggest news is still about rocker the developments that he has made this year the progress that he has made this year the leaps and bounds by which he has gotten better gotten back to the kind of prospect that the Rangers thought they could have when they drafted him at third overall even despite paying him lower than slot value that is part of the reason why the Rangers drafted him at third overall I mean the MLB draft is more of a puzzle than a straight up Talent draft like the other ones you have the bonus pools and you got to be smart about how you do that Rangers thought hey this is probably one of the last times we'll be picking this high in the draft hopefully um for the foreseeable future so they took two big old swings one on Kamar rocker one on Brock Porter the Brock Porter one is seeming to not really work out right now I'm not going to write the kid off cuz he's 20 21 years old and there's still plenty of time for him to figure it out but you're also hoping that Kamar rocker could turn into at least serviceable starting pitcher and he's blown that out of the water of serviceable starting pitcher being the floor the ceiling is what it always was a potential future homegrown Ace something the Rangers have not had in many many moons and something that hopefully they will have for years and years to come but for the right now what the heck is this rotation going to look like who is going to be the odd man out how the heck are the Rangers going to manage seven starting pitchers in rotation look at that and hypothetical of what would have happened with Kamar rocker's development had he not had Tommy John surgery last year talk about that right after this word from our sponsors this show is brought to you by game time getting tickets to your favorite events should not be difficult it should not be a hassle and you know when 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on Rangers your first listen every single day tonight the Rangers take on the Diamond Diamond Backs 8:40 p.m. central Time first pitch Nate E avaldi versus Zack gown you can catch every pitch of the hometown broadcast on Seri XM just download the sxm app and search Rangers now in order for Kamar rocker to make it up to the big league level the Rangers will have to add him to the 40 man roster there are some roster spots I believe that will be up for grabs right now I think the easiest way to make that happen is to move uh Tyler Mali from the 15 day iil to the 60-day iil Mali has already been declared out for the rest of this season so it is just a minor housekeeping note as to moving him to the 60-day in order to free up that 40-man spot but the Rangers are also going to have to make another 40 man roster spot for Jacob deg Grom when he comes off the 60-day iil that one will be a little bit more tricky although I think it will end up being a case of just moving one of the pitchers who is injured on the 15-day iil and saying all right your season is done and moving them to the 60-day iil the options for that are well Josh spores is on the 15-day iil um not sure exactly when he's been he's coming back Jacob Latz has been rehabbing for a minute um he is still on the 15 ail I believe he is the one who is most is scheduled to be or I guess available to be activated off the iil um most recently um or I guess quickest of of the rest of these guys and then Grant Anderson was just placed on the 15-day iil a few days ago he will be eligible to come off the 21st the ranger will have six games left between now and or guess between the 21st when he is eligible to be reinstated and the end of the season so maybe the Rangers will just go ahead and do that otherwise they're going to have to cut bait with somebody probably a pitcher um is is going to be the move there will be some 40-man roster spots that open up when some of these guys become uh free agents at the end of this year because you can't just keep all of your hurt pitchers on the 60-day I for the entire off season the ranger will have to make some moves of protecting certain people who are become eligible for the rule five draft so some spots will have be cleared of the guys who are you know on the 40-man roster that I don't think are going to stay all that much longer I think Chase Anderson is is probably the most obvious pick I mean the Rangers have some other options there if they're wanting to go ahead and cut bait with Sam Huff I I don't see him surviving another winter on the Rangers 40-man roster because he's out of options next year and with how bad Andrew kizner was this year the fact that Sam Huff couldn't even really get a sniff of even semi-regular playing time at the big league level I think that kind of tells you exactly how the Rangers are feeling um about him if the Rangers wanted to say that uh that Cory seager's year is done and put him on the 60-day I move him off the 10day iil to the 60 day that could be another way they open up a roster spot but um other than that not a whole lot of options there for um position players to open up 40-man roster spots I think that Huff is the most obvious option of those um sandrew Fabian being added to the 40 man was kind of a little bit of a surprise he's kind of profiled as a mediocre AAA hitter but the Rangers said hey let's see if you got anything and uh glad to see him make his MLB debut has not gotten his first M Mo hit just yet I'm sure he will get a chance to do that hopefully between now and the end of the year um but we'll see exactly what's going on with all of that between now and the end of the season but the Rangers are at seven men for their rotation right now it goes a little bit something like this Nate eovaldi Cody Bradford Kamar rocker Jacob De Grom Jack lighter Max Sherer and Andrew Heeney now the Rangers have six day stretches they have three different six-game stretches with off days in between at this point which means if you go with just the six-man rotation um then you can go with everybody pitching once a week everyone has three stars between now and the of the season but there's going to be an odd man out and I think the Rangers might go with all seven of these guys as starting pitchers between now and the end of the season obviously the priority for me at least and I think probably for the Rangers is making sure that these young guys keep getting starts make sure you keep figuring out what you have in Jack ligher and Cody Bradford and now in Kamar rocker make sure that you get as many looks at those guys as possible while with rocker still being delicate with his pitch count and his enies limit and things like that but for the other guys I mean Bradford's had a phenomenal breakout season unfortunately it's been marred a little bit by injuries not something that I think is going to be recurring hopefully um hopefully he does not have you know stress fractures in his ribs moving forward um but you never know with pitchers it is always a matter of you know can you keep guys healthy but that is prity number one for me is getting rocker getting lighter and getting Bradford as many starts between now and the end of this season in a regular rotation because you're going to need those guys in a big way next year now the next priority is getting Jacob De Grom some starts getting Jacob deg Grom fully built up because he is your Ace he is the guy you are paying the most money per year and he is a singular oneof one Talent the best pitcher in baseball when healthy so getting him to be fully healthy by the end of the season giving him a fully healthy offseason that is an incredibly important thing and even though the Rangers are out of it it does not matter they have it very big aspirations for next year and if they're going to achieve those aspirations you would like to get more than six starts in 30 Innings out of your Ace Jacob deg Grom I'm thinking they will next year hoping they will and then your other priorities is just with the other starting pitchers the other three they're not quite the odd men out but almost there but Nathan yaldi and Andrew Heeney have done nothing to not have a rotation spot between now and the end of the season yaldi you especially want to keep healthy happy and healthy because he's got a $2 million player option that if he gets seven Innings between now and the end of the season which he might just go ahead and knock that thing out tonight in Arizona and hit the 300 inning pitch marked in the regular season between last season and this season to trigger the $2 million investing player option which again we will see if he decides to just go ahead and take that or go to free agency and the Rangers have to try and bring him back for probably more than $20 million a year but you want to keep those those relationships good you want to keep yaldi there and happy and also part of the reason of calling up Kamar rocker between now and the end of the season is just spending some time with Nate eovaldi I mean the leadership aspect of eovaldi has been just about as big as everything else I mean e of all these you know tip early on in the season for Kirby Yates about how to throw his splitter Yates gives gives him a lot of credit for his Resurgence this year of just oh he had one little tip of just how to fix things how to you know make my slider my splitter just that much better and eates is having you know not as best season of his career but darn close and that's hard to do after you know the last four years that he's had and rocker eovaldi has had that kind of impact on basically every pitcher on the staff and so in the sad case that eovaldi doesn't return next year which I think is a possibility hopefully not a likelihood but definitely a very real possibility rocker wouldn't get to spend time with ivaldi on the same staff and so getting these three weeks of just getting acclimated to the big leagues getting e Aldi there around him impacting him teaching him what it means to be a starter at the big league level that is no small thing and I definitely think it's part of the reason why Kamar rocker is coming up but there's not just one reason for that and what is this actually going to look like if they do split this into all seven guys staying in the rotation I've got an idea about what that looks like we'll talk about that and if Kamar rocker is really ready or the Rangers are just pushing it a little bit too fast right after this word from our sponsors this show is brought to you by FanDuel you've heard us talk a lot about FanDuel America's number one sports book well we've got something a little different for you now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a 3- week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV then with the YouTube TV vase plan you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of Market game all you need is a Google account and a current form of payment and you can cancel anytime head over to fanduel.com to check out some of the odds they've got the Rangers winning the World Series they are the tied for the worst odds amongst teams that are still listed with the Rays Cardinals Cubs and tigers at plus 50,000 those are some long odds for sure if you want to look at division winners right now the Raiders are not even listed amongst the ALS possible division winners they are um quite a bit out of it right now the Astros are the favorites at plus 3,000 or minus 3,000 the Mariners at plus 1300 so go visit fanduel.com and download America's number one Sportsbook now the Rangers have seven starting pitchers or by Saturday probably they will have seven capable starting pitchers to find five to put into five spots maybe six spots in a rotation and this is how I think they do it because right now Max Sher is not built up to a full starters workload JC de Grom is about there rocker is well he's been so gosh darn efficient that he's only been throwing around 55 to 70 pitches in his starts but he's been using that to go through five innings um and that's probably about where he'll be limited to I don't see a scenario where he throws more than 70 75 pitches in really any start between now and the end of the season so you could piggyback tandem rocker but I think he's he's more built up than Max Scherzer is at this point sherzer is if this were a regular season if there were more time left I don't think Sher would be coming right back up I think he'd have probably one more Rehab start because the last start he just threw two innings in Triple A um so I think that a piggyback start makes the most sense with Sherer as to who ends up doing that I'm not sure if it's more likely to have it be Andrew Keeny or Jack lighter because lighter hasn't really consistently come out of the bullpen at all in his career he's done that a little bit more heene is a free agent at the end of this year so if there is an odd man out not that heene is pitched badly or deserves to be relegated to the bullpen but I think that's probably where I would go if it were me ivaldi has done nothing to not earn that start again like I said you need to keep him happy and hopes of bringing him back Sherer it's a it's not it's hard to say that's frustrating that you know one of the alltime greats wants to come back and Pitch but at this time it's not super helpful for the Rangers in their long-term plans but he's a Hall of Famer he helped you win a World Series you owe him that if he's ready to start him so I don't think you can just say sorry Max we're shutting you down for the year um because we all know how tenacious Max Sherer is and he would make that everybody's problem for the next three weeks to the point where they would regret it but I think that's probably what it's going to look like is Heeney and Sher doing piggyback starts probably on Sunday keep Jack ligher starting on Saturdays um everybody will have their day in the week for the last three weeks of the season and I think that's about where this will stack up from now until the end of the year but I want to look at for a second hypothetically what it would look like what it would have looked like if Kamar rocker didn't have Tommy John's surgery last year well before Tommy John's surgery I didn't see his rework delivery all that much when he was with the down east or the Hickory crads excuse me um I didn't really see how much of his delivery was reworked to where he was you know throwing at more of that kind of three4 slot looking a little bit in his wind up like Nolan Ryan he's not Nolan Ryan don't get me wrong I didn't say that don't expect him to be Nolan Ryan um he doesn't walk as many guys as no one and I don't think he's going to have quite as many career strikeouts or no hitters that is not a knock on Kamar rocker but unless he's pitching until he's 60 um it will be difficult to do in modern MLB conditions um but the delivery has looked so different and if you go back to remembering 2023 and the 2023 Texas Rangers they had quite a few starting pitchers but they had a big problem in their Bullpen and I think had Kamar rocker been healthy All Season he had six starts in hi Hickory by that point before he had Tommy John surgery he was going to be promoted to daa Frisco and if he kept pitching like that if he kept pitching that well and you know overmatching hitters and he looked anything like what he looked like now um he might have cracked that big Ling Rotation by like August or something last year um or maybe the Rangers would have just said you know this is a a risky player there's always risk with the pitchers but we need help in our Bullpen very desperately to win right now and he could have ended up in the bullpen and I think that might have stunted his growth um in general it would have been harder to transition him back to a starting pitcher role if he had moved to the bullpen now all of that is very hypothetical it's very difficult to say and looking back at Tommy John surgery is never a good thing but I think for Kamar rocker he has made the most of that opportunity to reset to you know refocus himself to really work on those big changes that the Rangers wanted cuz we saw him throwing in the Arizona fall league the first time as a Texas Rangers pitching Prospect uh the delivery was scary it was not good it was not what he was throwing like in college he was putting a lot of stress on his shoulder Grant and I talked about it a whole lot and then uh not very much at all because we just didn't want to think about it because it was so scary that he was throwing so much with his shoulder and with a guy who had already had shoulder surgery it already had uh knee surgery and then a few months later would end up having elbow surgery putting that much kind of pressure on his shoulder was scary but rocker talks a lot about the rehab staff the the staff in Arizona that worked with him on everything from his you know mental makeup to his mechanics to everything he didn't talk that much in detail when he was talking with the Press um after his final AA start um which we didn't what the time was his final doublea start but he he doesn't talk about it much we can see that the delivery is much different and it's repeatable it's clean he looks very very confident in himself and the stuff has been good enough to get big Leaguers out basically since he got to doublea I thought it the first time I saw him I really thought the second time I saw him I've talked to a lot of different people who are much much smarter than me who all said and I asked I'm like am I crazy for thinking after watching him for two starts that he could get a lot of big lers out right now and the consensus was yes very much yes he can you're not crazy I mean you're a little crazy but not for this and this is just very vindicating that he is getting these starts to get acclimated to the big leagues not that I think he particularly needs it I think he'd be plenty confident just coming into the rotation out of Camp next year but getting this taste I think will be helpful and I get the trepidation I get thinking okay this is just all happening so freaking fast and I I've talked about it many times on this show I've said it probably a dozen times over the last maybe even month that right now the difference between Triple A and the big leagues is as big as it's been in the last 10 years that I've been doing this and he has 10 triaa Innings 10 now they're 10 pretty remarkable triaa Innings but it's still 10 AAA Innings but the stuff with him is it is what it is it's going to play at all the different levels no matter what types of hitters he's seeing I think they will be good enough that we might finally see his cutter because he's a he's a five pitch guy now he's got the four seam fast ball which averages at 98 miles an hour the profile on it the advanced numbers of you know the intentional vertical break the peripherals and stuff on it aren't as pretty but it's it's good enough to to play about like a 98 mph fast ball not in the not very much movement kind of zone of oh you got velocity but it it's in a Straight Arrow so it doesn't matter he's also got the Sinker that he can command at around the same velocity bend that one I think is a little bit better than the four seamer he's also got a change up that has shown a lot of Promise a cutter that we haven't seen before and oh yeah the freaking curveball that has a crazy whiff rate in triaa I mean his last start uh in triaa it's statcast will call it a slider other people will call it a slider don't listen to them it's not a slider according to Kamar himself he does not have multiple breaking balls he has just the one he grips like a curveball always has throws it pretty hard but he got 17 swings on that curveball in his final trip start and 12 of those swings were swings and misses so 71% of the swings they took at that curveball were swings and misses three of those were fouled off and only two of those were put in play and more than half of those pitches were out of the zone I mean the guy's curveball is rightly called a death ball kind of remind reminiscent of Monty's curveball in the playoffs uh maybe even more effective but long story short this guy is ready the stuff is there and there is reason for hope there is a lot of Reason for Hope in this guy with his ceiling as a number one starting pitcher that is not something I have ever said about a Texas Rangers pitching prospect that is not something that people in general have been saying about any Rangers pitching Prospect in at least the 15 years or so that I've been paying attention to this he's getting logical level-headed people with years of ingrained pessimism about Rangers pitching Prospect development should I I should say well-earned pessimism about Rangers pitching Prospect development they've got people like that out of their minds gushing about this guy and saying who the heck am I believing in a Texas Rangers pitching prosp ECT myself included but of course there's reason for fear of course there's reasons for saying well you know he's just going to be like David CER blah blah blah blah blah just not wanting to get your hoes up on a Rangers pitching Prospect I get that there's a reason there's a phrase there's no such thing as a pitching Prospect his his injury history could fill a very large three- ring B three- ring binder but at this point it's to a lesser extent like deom the injured history isn't quite as scary he's not quite as old as Jacob deom don't get me wrong I don't think that Kamar rocker is just going to pitch six starts next year but with any pitcher in baseball now especially when you throw that hard you got that nasti as stuff and you have that injury history at some point there you kind of feel like there's a finite number of bullets in the chamber there's only a finite number of pitches before the ticking time bomb that is any pitcher throwing arm go goes off and there's another time John or whatever kind of injury so you might as well spend those bullets at the big league level and you know you might as well spend those bullets in maybe the most pitcher friendly Park against a very pitcher friendly lineup that he will be facing in the Mariners they've shown a little bit of Life the last uh couple of weeks still very much not a super duper threatening offense not quite white sock levels of a competent to make your MLB debut against but still I am very excited for this rocker debut I think he is more than ready and yeah we may have been burned before yeah we may eventually be burned again but just sit back and enjoy Kamar rocker making his big league debut because I promise it's way more fun than just worrying about the wh ifs that's going to do it for today's show thank you all so much for listening and subscribing and until next time don't forget to enjoy World Series champion Texas Rangers baseball