Kumar Rocker Makes Minor League Debut

Highly-touted Texas Rangers pitching prospect Kumar Rocker finally made his professional debut with Class High-A Hickory on Tuesday night and it was one to remember.

The Rangers assigned Rocker to the Crawdads to start his first professional season. He was scheduled to pitch during their opening series last weekend, but weather delays postponed all but the first game of that series.

When the Crawdads announced their rotation for the week, Rocker was designated to lead off the week at Wilmington.

Rocker put together a sterling effort, giving up two hits in five innings of shutout baseball. He also struck out eight and walked none.

Rocker threw a perfect first and second innings that included four strikeouts. After retiring the first two hitters in the third inning on strikeouts, Wilmington’s Cordy Barley ended the perfect game with a single. Rocker ended the inning by inducing a groundout.

Rocker gave up the other hit in the fourth inning, a single to Jason Wood. He stole second, but Rocker struck out Trey Lipscomb to end the inning.

Rocker then threw a perfect fifth inning with no strikeouts. He threw 53 pitches and 41 of them were strikes.

Rocker was the Rangers’ first-round pick in July (No. 3 overall) and didn’t play in the system after his selection. He did play in the Arizona Fall League and helped the Surprise Saguaros win the AFL title. He was also named an AFL All-Star.

In the AFL, Rocker went 2-1 with a 4.50 ERA in six starts, throwing 14 innings and giving up 12 hits with seven runs (all earned). He walked 12 and struck out 18.

Rocker was the New York Mets’ first-round pick in 2021, but he went unsigned after the Mets were uncertain about his medicals. He later had arm surgery characterized as minor by agent Scott Boras.

He ended up in professional baseball with Tri-City in the Frontier League. He went 1-0 with a 1.35 ERA in five starts. He pitched 20 innings, gave up 11 hits, four runs (three earned), two home runs and four walks. He struck out 32 and had a .750 WHIP.

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