Rangers hope major change gets struggling pitcher back on track

Kumar Rocker entered the 2025 season as an expected big part of the Texas Rangers' plans. Things didn't go anywhere close to the way people hoped despite some flashes of the pitcher the team thinks he can be.

Things were, in fact, so bad at one point that the club decided it needed to put a pause on the season. However, things are moving forward again and Rocker is going back on the mound later today.

The Texas Rangers decided to make sure he got some things sorted out mechanically. They realized that his career was going to hit a real wall if they didn't get it sorted. And so, until Thursday, he hadn't pitched in a live game since August 7. However, he'll log two innings Triple-A Round Rock at Sacramento.

Texas Rangers want to see what Kumar Rocker has to offer

The team would like to keep open the possibility that Rocker could pitch in the majors sometime during the final 10 games of the season. That might actually be easier now since a sweep at the hands of the Houston Astros this week likely kicked them out of the playoff race.

“We want to get him back in a competitive setting to get a better sense of the things we’ve been working on,” general manager Ross Fenstermaker said earlier this week.

In 64⅓ innings in the majors this season, Rocker has a 5.88 ERA. He pitched an additional 16.2 innings in the minors. There was very little in-between in his outings. He was either very sharp or wholly ineffective. In half of his 14 outings, he went at least five innings and compiled a 2.25 ERA. In the other half: He allowed 31 runs in just 24.1 innings.

The Texas Rangers don't believe his struggles are talent-based. Now we get to see if they've fixed him.