{"id":567126,"date":"2026-02-11T23:43:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T23:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/567126\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T23:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T23:43:14","slug":"kumar-rockers-path-to-bounce-back-2026-season-with-rangers-starts-with-key-adjustment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/567126\/","title":{"rendered":"Kumar Rocker\u2019s path to bounce-back 2026 season with Rangers starts with key adjustment"},"content":{"rendered":"

SURPRISE, Ariz. \u2014 He\u2019s not the chattiest of the Rangers<\/a>\u2019 pitchers, but that only gives the points he does make that much more weight. <\/p>\n

For instance, this is how Kumar Rocker on Wednesday summed up his biggest single project of the spring \u2014 displaying an effective changeup that he\u2019s willing to use in games:<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t rent it,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve got to own it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The point: He\u2019s got to be fully committed to the pitch, which was a big stumbling block in first real shot at the Rangers\u2019 starting rotation<\/a>. There is ample opportunity for him to land a spot in the Rangers\u2019 rotation; in fact, the Rangers might actually prefer if he does win it over Jacob Latz, because Latz could then be moved to the bullpen in a high-leverage role<\/a>. But what will play out over the next six weeks is just how committed to \u201cowning\u201d the changeup to go with his fastball and hard breaking ball Rocker is. To own it, he\u2019s got to use it. And therein lies the real conundrum. He shied away from it last year.<\/p>\n

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It wasn\u2019t a great pitch. He didn\u2019t have much conviction in it. When he did throw it, almost exclusively to left-handed hitters, they bashed it. All of which led to even less conviction, less usage, an easier-to-predict arsenal for hitters and a seemingly never-ending downward spiral.<\/p>\n

It led to a pair of minor league options and effectively ended his season in early August, when the Rangers optioned him to the minors<\/a>, watched one start and then chose to take him off the active roster, place him in an intensive development program to recalibrate things<\/a>. He pitched only once more in a game. <\/p>\n

Not a great end to the year on the field, but it\u2019s also worth remembering that in 2023 Jack Leiter finished the year in the same kind of intensive one-on-one class with then-minor league pitching coordinator Jordan Tiegs<\/a>. It has been nothing but an upward trajectory for Leiter ever since.<\/p>\n

Leiter and Rocker, teammates at Vanderbilt and part of the offseason workout group with other pros at their alma mater, have talked about the development program, how it impacted Leiter and how it could help Rocker. Leiter said he felt like Rocker had a great offseason and was coming to camp with a chip on his shoulder. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked on what I needed to do to have success at the next level,\u201d was how Rocker explained it Wednesday. \u201cAnd I think I had the time to do that and just nail it down and put together something to take into the off season. I felt like I needed to have better usage with my change, better consistency in my routine and just better overall consistency.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rocker didn\u2019t really go into further detail, but doesn\u2019t need to. The numbers explain the picture pretty well. Against the change, batters slugged .714 with an .800 expected slug, per Baseball Savant. The ball left the bat at 95.2 mph. It was the hardest average exit velocity among the pitchers who allowed at least 10 balls in play on the pitch. As you\u2019d expect, those results would lead to a pitcher throwing that pitch less and less often. In Rocker\u2019s case, he threw the changeup only 6.1% of the time, which ranked 212th of the 258 pitchers to throw at least 1,000 pitches in the majors in 2025.<\/p>\n

The inability to use the change also had impact on his other pitches. Without something to throw beyond his upper 90s fastball and hard breaking ball, it made it easier for hitters to time him up. Further complicating things were that the fastball-slider combo essentially stayed on the same plane, mostly up in the strike zone. He needed something to occasionally get hitters to change their eye level, something that went down. The changeup should be that pitch, especially to left-handed hitters.<\/p>\n

Despite the issues last year, the Rangers still strongly believe Rocker is a starter. Manager Skip Schumaker met with Rocker over the winter when Rocker was at Boras Sports Institute (Rocker is a Scott Boras client). The new manager and the pitcher had lunch and talked baseball. It wasn\u2019t so much for Schumaker to lay out expectations to Rocker, but to remind him of the belief the Rangers have in him. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a very talented, special pitcher that has stuff that a lot of guys don\u2019t have on the mound,\u201d Schumacher said. \u201cWe want to build him up and instill belief that he\u2019s on our radar and that he\u2019s really, really good. I want him to be hungry to make this team, to be the fifth starter. That\u2019s the goal. And I think he\u2019s doing everything he can to get there. There are not a lot of guys in this league that have his stuff. There are just some growing pains with a lot of young pitchers. It\u2019s just the reality.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rocker went through those pains last year. The hope is he\u2019s learned from it and that he\u2019s ready to claim a rotation spot.<\/p>\n

And not just on a short-term lease.<\/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":"SURPRISE, Ariz. \u2014 He\u2019s not the chattiest of the Rangers\u2019 pitchers, but that only gives the points he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[4805,5,721,360,4,149,14902,185,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-567126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-jack-leiter","11":"tag-kumar-rocker","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-rangers","14":"tag-skip-schumaker","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-texas-rangers","18":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116054655339090938","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567126","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=567126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}