Kumar Rocker pinpoints what sparked his Rangers turnaround

Is Kumar Rocker finally turning into the pitcher the Texas Rangers once thought might be a candidate for Rookie of the Year in 2025? There's a long way to go until he comes close to convincing anyone of that, but the "punch in the gut" he took after his first call-up to Globe Life this season might have served as the reset button he needed to make real progress to finally harnessing his potential.

When Rocker was activated from the IL, then lit up in his lone start and sent down to Round Rock in the span of 24 hours, it felt as though he might be stuck in Triple-A for a while. Rangers' manager Bruce Bochy talked quite a bit about the growing the young hurler needed to do. Then Tyler Mahle went on the IL and Rocker was given a second chance just 10 days later. He's making the most of this chance so far.

Kumar Rocker making early strides in second shot with Texas Rangers

"You take it like a punch in the gut and try to bounce back from it," Rocker said of his week-and-a-half-long demotion. "A perspective change goes a long way. You try to keep learning."

"I wasn't doing my job," Rocker added, according to the Dallas Morning News. "I wasn't doing anything to help the team and there wasn't any reason for me to be up here."

While the young pitcher's ERA is still plenty ugly, his last two starts have been night and day from his previous outings this season. He's 2-0 with a 1.74 ERA with 10 strikeouts and 4 walks in 10.1 innings.

There's still stuff to work on. Including efficiency, considering he hasn't completed 6 innings since this time. He also still has accuracy issues, both in and out of the zone. But the Rangers have also seen a pitcher who took the demotion to heart earlier this month.

"He's come back up with a different look about him, that's what I like," Bochy told the paper. "It shows you about his makeup. He knows he has to get better at [the little things] and he did."

The Texas Rangers would love to see Kumar Rocker finally harness his abilities and become a staple in the rotation. Of course, should that happen, it creates more questions than answers about where the team goes from here, especially when Mahle and Nathan Eovaldi are back.