Rangers injury update: Top 100 prospect likely 'out for season' with elbow injury

The Texas Rangers were dealt a tough blow on Sunday with the news of their Top 100 pitching prospect will be out for the year with an apparent elbow injury.

Alejandro Rosario, MLB Pipeline's 50th ranked overall prospect, suffered an elbow injury recently and will be out for the 2025 season as he requires surgery, President of Baseball Operations Chris Young told reporters Sunday in Surprise.

"It's likely UCL, I don't want to officially say, but yeah, it's elbow and will probably require Tommy John," Young said.

Although Young made a guess what the injury was he still didn't confirm what kind of surgery will be required but could confidently say that Rosario would be out the entire season.

Rosario was the team's 5th round draft pick out of Miami in the 2023 Major League Baseball Draft. In 2024, Rosario threw 88 1/3 innings with the Rangers Single-A Down East and Hickory, recording a 2.24 ERA, 129 strikeouts and only 13 walks in 18 starts.

Texas took a big chance on the right-hander as his three seasons at Miami were less than ideal, ending his career as a Hurricane with a 6.47 ERA. The team went through a massive rehaul in his mechanics and pitch mix which ended with a high strikeout percentage (36.9%) and a 9.9 K/BB ratio.

The 23-year-old was on track to start the 2025 season with Double-A Frisco and spend majority of his season with the Crawdads after a tremendous first season in professional baseball. His projected ETA to the big league team as 2026, but that'll now be put on hold for at least a year.

Through those changes he was throwing 94-98 mph with his fastball with a sinker and splitter with devastating strikeout potential and scouts were intrigued with his "upside of a frontline starter."

Despite this having no bearing on the team's 2025 plans at the big league level, it's an unfortunate development not only for Rosario but for the organization after a successful re-tooling last season.