Nathan Eovaldi's injury makes Kumar Rocker's deficiencies impossible to ignore

Here we are with 42 big games left in the season. Where did it go? The summer of 2026 has flown by with the Rangers rising and falling above the .500 mark like a cork in the sea. It has been pure mediocrity as they find themselves at 60-60. Some players have improved, while others have disappointed. Kumar Rocker, the big right-hander from Watkinsville, Georgia, has shown flashes, but has largely been inconsistent throughout, and he has been worse lately.

Since July 1, Rocker has a 6.10 ERA. In his most recent outing, he had a mental lapse that compounded a bad inning in a 10-5 loss to the offensively challenged Baltimore Orioles. The physical tools are undeniable, but he can't seem to lock it in mentally for a solid 6 or 7 innings, and his role on this team and within this staff needs to be reevaluated and possibly changed.

For the season, he is 4-9 with a 4.46 ERA and 158 WHIP. He has allowed exactly one hit per inning over 111 frames while fanning 103 and issuing 42 free passes.

The Rangers can no longer afford Kumar Rocker's first-inning struggles and general inconsistency

In games where Skip Schumaker has decided to use a first-inning opener for Rocker, he has followed up by delivering a 1.42 ERA. But with Nathan Eovaldi now hitting the 15-day IL with elbow inflammation, the club can't continue to burn a key bullpen arm like Tyler Alexander or Cal Quantrill just to cover up for Rocker's inability to pitch the first inning - at least until Jack Leiter and/or Evo are back and fully healthy. It's a bizarre pitching paradox, as almost all starters become more hittable the more times they go through the lineup. For Rocker, the opposite is true.

Rocker has now made 39 major league starts, and the Rangers have to take the training wheels off and stop handling Rocker with kid gloves. The arm talent is tantalizing, with a 96 mph fastball and a killer strikeout changeup that stays down in the zone. Unfortunately, for every step Kumar takes forward, he has mental lapses that cause a step-and-a-half backward.

For every good outing he has, he seems to have a really bad one. On July 21 and July 27, Rocker had two fantastic, quality starts against the White Sox and Mariners, only to turn around and have two flops against the Orioles and Astros.

It's time to move Rocker to a long-relief position and let either Jordan Montgomery or Quantrill take his spot in the rotation. The idea is that if you can show the opposing hitters someone else before they dig in against Rocker later on, it will make his stuff look like a change of pace for their first at-bat against him. It could also let him settle into the flow of the game without the pressure of feeling like he has to go 5 or 6 innings or pitch for his job every time through the rotation.

Sometimes Rocker looks flummoxed on the mound, almost like he feels the weight of the world on his shoulders. You can see him take deep breaths in between pitches, trying to keep his composure out there. Naturally, he's been coached to be as relaxed as possible while on the hill, but sometimes — like against the Orioles when he forgot to cover first base on a grounder to Jake Burger — he has trouble balancing the mental part of the game with the physical. There is no hiding that.

Yes, the team spent a first-round pick on him, and ideally, he would be showing signs that he is getting better at compartmentalizing things as they happen throughout the game. Sadly, as Rocker is set to turn 27 in November, he doesn't appear to have a much better handle on being a complete pitcher than he did as a rookie.

He can still be an effective part of the Rangers staff, but not all pitchers are cut out to be a starter. Rocker needs a role change, similar to a player who needs to go to another team for a change of scenery. He works hard, and his arsenal is so tantalizing that the organization is correct to give him every benefit of the doubt. Still, maybe they drafted a really good setup man or even a closer instead of a guy who doesn't seem to do well as a fifth starter, perpetually pitching for his spot in the rotation.

Without Eovaldi, Rocker is being counted on to be more than a fifth starter, and his inconsistency threatens to sink Texas's playoff hopes. Given the fact that the Rangers have a plethora of other starting pitching options, it would behoove them to make a move to stabilize the rotation, while potentially getting more value out of Rocker in a bullpen role.

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