Texas Rangers Pitching Prospect Kumar Rocker Returns to the Mound After Ligament Surgery Last May
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- During the July 5 game, the 24-year-old son of a football coach and an Indian American mother, pitched two innings, and struck out three batters.
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Texas Rangers pitching prospect Kumar Rocker returned to the mound last week, playing for the Arizona Complex League Rangers. It was his first competitive game since last May when he underwent ab ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) reconstruction, colloquially known as Tommy John surgery.
During the July 5 game, the 24-year-old son of a football coach and an Indian American mother “pitched two innings, gave up one run on two hits, struck out three batters and walked none,” The Dallas Morning News reported.
The 6-foot-5, 245-pound pitcher is the Rangers’ third-best prospect and top arm, according to MLB Pipeline. He had a 3.86 ERA (earned run average), and 42 strikeouts to seven walks through six starts at High-A Hickory last season before the surgery.
Kumar was originally selected by the Mets as the 10th pick of the 2021 MLB Draft. However, they eventually dropped him after reviewing his medical information and finding a shoulder issue, the same one he ended up requiring surgery for. They rescinded their contract offer and opted not to offer Rocker anything, “instead taking the 11th overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft as compensation,” as reported by The Big Lead, a sports news blog.
The baseball player had a shoulder surgery in September 2021, after which he returned to the mound next spring in the New York-based Tri-City ValleyCats of the Independent Frontier League. Last summer, he was the third overall pick by the Rangers.
College basketball’s biggest star, Rocker played for the Vanderbilt Commodores for three years and was named the College World Series Most Outstanding Player. He appeared in 19 games, and posted a 3.25 ERA in 99.2 innings, allowing 88 hits, walking 21, and striking out 114. His first few appearances in the NCAA were not bad per se, but he really started gaining momentum in his second half, posting a 2.17 ERA in his last 11 starts, striking out 82 in 70.2 innings.
According to ESPN, Rocker, who was born in Montgomery Alabama, moved through seven states as a kid (his father’s coaching career took the family from town to town). The longest stay was seven years in Arkansas; the shortest was 11 months in Oxford, Mississippi.
He played both football and baseball when he enrolled at North Oconee High School in Bogart, Georgia, but according to his Mets Draft profile, he stopped playing football completely by his junior year of high school. By then, his skill as a pitcher really began shining through. He entered high school with a fastball that touched the high-80s and it continued improving and improving and improving, and by the time he began focusing only on baseball, the pitch sat in the low-to-mid-90s and regularly touched the high-90s.
Although Kumar chose baseball, not part of the Rocker family sports legacy, he told ESPN that he draws on the knowledge and inspiration he garnered during a childhood spent on SEC and NFL sidelines and in locker rooms.