Until Kumar Rocker can find a fix, this stat will continue to hold him back

It's been a genuinely rough ride at the big league level for Kumar Rocker and while there's been occasional flashes of brilliances, the story has been more disappointing than optimistic.

In his now third MLB season, Rocker's biggest enemies have been limiting opponent's hard-hit rate and free passes. Something that is always a tough aspect for young pitchers to learn since you can't get away with middle-middle pitches at this level.

It's quite possible to see a shift and at times he does show that his control is there but until he's able to lock in and find that control more often than not, it's going to be a tough time for the 26-year-old right-hander.

Rocker's development relies on limiting baserunners

It's impossible to limit any baserunners, that's called a perfect game and it's only been done 24 times in professional baseball. However, what is possible to get under wraps is the walks. Which is one of Rocker's biggest weakness and gets him to trouble and high pitch counts early.

On Sunday against the Athletics, Rocker opened the game with a quick two outs but two competitive at-bats, resulting in two walks and then a two-RBI triple to Carlos Cortes in a full-count fastball right down the middle. A pitch that even the worst hitter in the league will crush every single time.

The walk and hard-hit rates for Rocker aren't too bad this season but it's still among the bottom half of the league. While he sat in the bottom five percentile in hard-hit rate in 2025, he's in the 30th percentile to kick off this season. While the walk rate has remained the same in the 48-53 percentile range.

Opponents hit the ball with an average exit velocity of 91.2 mph, all of that means Rocker was among the bottom five percent of all big league qualified pitchers.

This is a sign that Rocker is not comfortable on the mound, consistently lacking confidence in his pitches which causes him to overthrow and get his head about his mechanics. Then, if he's not walking a batter, he's allowing batters to crush the ball.

Fortunately, it didn't damage Rocker as much on Sunday as he limited the damage to just those two walks and two earned runs in six innings. It ended in a Texas 2-1 loss to close the series as they transition to face the Yankees.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow