MacKenzie Gore trade says Rangers aren't yet comfortable with former first-round pick

The Texas Rangers shocked the baseball world on Thursday afternoon after being ultra aggressive and acquiring left-hander MacKenzie Gore via trade with the Washington Nationals.

They did so by sending five prospects to Washington, including the Rangers second overall prospect Gavin Fien for two years (pending the 2027 CBA lockout) of control for the 26-year-old from North Carolina. Whether this move is seen as reckless abandon, Gore automatically makes the Rangers' top three starters one of the best trios in baseball.

Another thing is also sure from this move, Texas still does not trust Kumar Rocker to take the ball every fifth day.

Rangers still don't trust Kumar Rocker

Rocker, 26, was Texas's third overall pick in the 2022 draft a year after failing to strike a deal with the New York Mets, who selected him 10th overall.

He made his MLB debut in September 2024 and made the Opening Day roster in 2025, starting the year in the starting rotation. In 14 starts last season, Rocker struggled recording a 4-5 record with a 5.74 ERA, 56 strikeouts, 23 walks, 41 earned runs and a 1.46 WHIP in 64.1 innings of work.

Rocker's last game of the year was July 31 in a 6-0 loss to Seattle then recalled to Triple-A Round Rock and only made a handful of starts to end the year. The Rangers didn't see a lot of positives and worked with him fix his issues but it was going to be tough going into spring training with him as a candidate for the rotation.

Trust was so low that it prompted the Rangers to get rid of five of their top 20 prospects for maybe one year of Gore, who is solid but has still failed to find the success he was hyped to have when he was the sixth-best prospect in baseball five years ago.

What do the Rangers look like with Gore in rotation?

As mentioned above, Texas's rotation automatically becomes one of the best in the American League, maybe even the entire league.

Before the Gore trade they were already headlining with Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Jack Leiter. Now, the already top big league rotation gets even stronger.

“Certainly, pitching has been a focus for us, and we feel like adding a talented pitcher at the level of MacKenzie makes us a really good pitching staff,” President of Baseball Operations Chris Young told reporters after the trade. “I put our starting rotation up there with some of the best rotations in baseball, and we’re just excited for our team in pursuit of another World Series championship. That's been our goal all along."

While the numbers in don't show it, a 5-15 record with a 4.17 ERA in 2025, he was still a highly sought after arm in the trade market due to his age, cheap contract and multiple years of control. Texas also could potentially get him back on track and sign him to a contract extension in the future.

Pitchers and catchers are less than a month away from reporting to Surprise for another spring and Gore will certainly draw a lot of attention next to the rest of this elite Rangers' rotation.