{"id":219422,"date":"2025-08-02T04:43:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T04:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/219422\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T04:43:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T04:43:21","slug":"rocker-latz-showed-promise-but-got-short-end-of-the-stick-in-rangers-deadline-shuffle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/219422\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocker, Latz showed promise, but got short end of the stick in Rangers\u2019 deadline shuffle"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE – The Rangers<\/a> optioned Kumar Rocker<\/a> to the minors in June. He made one start and came back a wholly different pitcher. <\/p>\n

At that rate, imagine the progress he will make with a couple of more. <\/p>\n

With Merrill Kelly arriving in Seattle Friday<\/a> and being inserted into the rotation for Saturday\u2019s start, the Rangers sent Rocker back to Triple-A Round Rock<\/a> for more finishing. The Rangers can\u2019t justify carrying a six-man rotation, so Rocker was squeezed out. This time it wasn\u2019t so much about poor performance as it was the Rangers simply have better options. <\/p>\n

Related:Who is Merrill Kelly? 5 things to know about the Rangers\u2019 biggest trade deadline addition<\/a><\/p>\n

Rangers<\/p>\n

Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n

In addition, the Rangers optioned relievers Jacob Latz and Caleb Boushley to Round Rock to make room for Danny Coulombe and Phil Maton. <\/p>\n

Kelly\u2019s arrival will push each starter back a day, giving Jacob deGrom, Sunday\u2019s scheduled starter, an extra day of rest.<\/p>\n

Rocker will go to Round Rock to continue to work as a starter and be available as a depth option to the Rangers should an injury arise. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s made a ton of improvement and told him that last night,\u201d manager Bruce Bochy said of Rocker, who allowed six hits and a pair of walks in surrendering three runs in 4\u2154 innings Thursday. \u201cThere were a lot of good things in that game. I loved his change up usage. He\u2019s improving and was really a dramatic change from the last time he went down.\u201d <\/p>\n

After the brief first trip to Triple-A, Rocker showed much better feel for his secondary pitches and the difference in results was dramatic. In his first six starts, totaling 23\u2153t innings, Rocker compiled an 8.87 ERA, allowing a .346 batting average. In the eight starts after his recall, he compiled a 3.95 ERA for 41 innings and lowered his batting average allowed to .230. <\/p>\n

But in three of his last four starts, his pitch counts mounted and he didn\u2019t make it through the fifth inning. He averaged 18.1 pitches per inning as opposed to 16 in his first four starts after he was recalled. He did not make it through the fifth against Seattle on Thursday and allowed two homers, giving him seven in 41 innings over the last eight starts. <\/p>\n

Latz has also struggled lately with command after a six-inning spot start at Baltimore where he flirted with a no-hitter. Since that outing he\u2019d allowed 11 walks while striking out 18 in 19 \u2153 innings. Prior to that, he\u2019d a strikeout to walk rate of better than 2-to-1. The Rangers also now have a logjam of lefty relievers in the majors with Danny Coulombe joining Hoby Milner and Robert Garcia. Carrying a quartet would be difficult. <\/p>\n

Latz showed promise in some spot starts, but Bochy said the team intended to have him continue to work in a multi-inning relief role.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get him back on track,\u201d Bochy said. \u201cI guess it\u2019s fair to say, he hasn\u2019t quite thrown as many strikes lately and is getting behind a little bit more than when he was going well. And when he was going well, he did a lot of good things. So we just need to get him right.\u201d <\/p>\n

Five thoughts from Rangers trade deadline: Effect on payroll, not adding a bat and more<\/a>Texas Rangers\u2019 Kumar Rocker, Jacob Latz optioned to make room for trade deadline additions<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE – The Rangers optioned Kumar Rocker to the minors in June. He made one start and came…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,3417,360,4,149,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-219422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brief","10":"tag-kumar-rocker","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-rangers","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-rangers","15":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114957346790087556","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}