Despite a tough start to 2025, the Rangers should still have faith in Kumar Rocker

Earlier this year prior to Spring Training, I made an article about how Kumar Rocker had a path to winning American League Rookie of the Year. The Kumar Rocker we saw today looked nothing like that version I envisioned.

While I do think it is bad to overreact to one start, there were some concerning signs throughout his three innings today.

Ever since spring training began, there has been a concerning trend down for Rocker. He has struggled to get batters out and frequently gave up extra base hits. He did end up finishing strong in Spring Training in a tune up outing vs the Kansas City Royals striking out eight in four innings, flashing his elite swing and miss pitches.

Throughout his brief MLB time, he has clearly shown he can strike people out with the best of them. His talent was displayed with certain at-bats and pitches but was mired in mediocrity throughout the painful three inning start.

There were multiple times today where Rocker would get ahead in counts and pitch his way behind. This lead to multiple obvious fastball counts that ended up in extra base hits or home runs.

The Reds were hunting his fastball and it was on clear display. There were multiple sliders with clear "fight it off" swings that prolonged at bats then when he threw the fastball, it was rarely missing the barrel.

On top of pitching out of at bats, there seemed to be a lack of confidence from the massive right hander. After giving up hits or walks, Rocker showed poor body language and clearly displayed frustration over what occurred without making any obvious actions. There just seemed to be a lack of urgency to dominate at bats and attack hitters.

Struggling at a point in a young career is expected. Displaying a lack of confidence or displacement is an easy way for a bad start to spiral into a prolonged issue.

It was frustrating to observe some S tier pitches be followed up by dirt balls or way out of the zone fastballs. Uncompetitive pitches is an easy way to ruin a start. Rocker went on to own it after the game and Bochy simply put it as today was not his day.

I will stand by my take on Rocker potentially winning Rookie of the Year. If every season were to be determined in March, they wouldn't crown the champion in October. I still believe in Rocker and I think every Rangers fans would be foolish to already write him off after one bad start.