10 things to know about Rangers’ Kumar Rocker, including no-hitter, impressing Josh Jung

The Rangers may have shocked the baseball world when they took Kumar Rocker at No. 3 overall, but the pitching prospect has already impressed at Spring Training.

Here are 10 things to know about the Rangers’ recent first-round pick.

1. The basics

Pos: Pitcher

Age: 22 (Nov. 22, 1999)

Ht/Wt: 6-5, 245 lb.

Throws: Right

Hometown: Watkinsville, GA

College: Vanderbilt University

2. Consider Josh Jung impressed

Don’t take too much out of pre-exhibition batting practice, but that doesn’t make it any less exciting when one prospect compliments another. Jung had an exciting Rangers debut last season, and he was impressed when he faced Rocker recently for the first time.

“He rocked,” Jung said. “He was throwing a 99 mph sinker. I didn’t even know he had that. And you could just see it in his eyes: He was coming for us. It was tough.”

3. He’s been drafted three times

This is not the first time Rocker’s been drafted. In fact, it’s not even the second time. He was first selected in the 38th round by the Rockies back in 2018, but opted to enroll at Vanderbilt University instead.

He was once again drafted by the Mets 10th overall in 2021, but the Mets retracted their offer after reviewing his medical history.

Then, in the 2022 MLB Draft, the Rangers shocked the baseball world by taking Rocker No. 3 overall.

4. He recently pitched in relief

Rocker hadn’t pitched in relief since he was a freshman at Vanderbilt. But he threw 13 pitches against the Colorado Rockies Tuesday at Surprise Stadium. He mixed in more off-speed looks after five consecutive fastballs — which sat at 94 miles per hour — to start the frame.

“It was a bullpen outing,” Rocker said with a smile. “That was my first time coming out of the bullpen in a while, so I didn’t know what was going to happen. I’m glad I got guys out.”

5. Professional sports runs in the family

Rocker’s dad Tracy is a College Football Hall of Famer from Auburn and was drafted in the third round of the NFL Draft by Washington. Despite a successful rookie season where he selected to the All-Rookie team, Tracy only played two seasons in the NFL. He eventually retired after a brief stint with the Orlando Thunder in the then named World League of American Football, which was eventually renamed NFL Europa.

He’s now the defensive line coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.

6. He’s not the first Ranger to come out of Vanderbilt

In fact, the last Ranger to come out of Vanderbilt was his former teammate and current Rangers top prospect, Jack Leiter. Unlike other infamous college pitching duos, Leiter and Kumar apparently got along well in college. The two are different in terms of physical attributes, but are similar when considering both have fathers with professional sports backgrounds.

You could say that Leiter was pretty enthused to see his former college teammate get drafted.

The two put up staggering numbers in college, with Rocker sporting a 2.89 ERA through three seasons and Leiter putting up a 2.36 ERA over two seasons. They fronted the rotation of the Commodores when they won the NCAA Division 1 Championships in 2019 and when they came in second in 2021.

In the 2021 MLB Draft, Leiter and Rocker were the first rotation mates to project as top 10 picks since the aforementioned infamous pair of Trevor Bauer and Gerrit Cole, who both pitched at UCLA in 2011.

7. He had a legendary performance in the NCAA super regionals

Back in 2019, the Vanderbilt Commodores were on the brink of elimination from the NCAA tournament when Rocker decided he didn’t want to be eliminated.

Rocker threw 131 pitches, 19 strikeouts and the first no-hitter in super regionals history against Duke in his first season at Vanderbilt. It was a precursor of what was to come, as he eventually led the team to the 2019 College World Series title as Vanderbilt’s MVP.

8. He has some mysterious injury concerns

Rocker had minor surgery on his arm after the Mets decided to forego drafting him. After rehabbing, Rocker pitched for the Tri-City Valley Cats of the independent Frontier League last spring, showing that he had recovered from his surgery.

The Rangers felt comfortable after taking a look at his medicals, but whether or not they were justified in their confidence remains to be seen.

9. He’s had trouble with his fastball in the past

Rocker’s slider is his well known strike out pitch - all of his 19 strikeouts from his legendary Duke game were on sliders - but his fastball has been less consistent. While he was considered a top prospect at the beginning of the 2020-21 season, the dip in velocity on his fastball led to him falling a bit in the draft.

However, in his return to pitching with the Tri-City Valley Cats, Rocker showed off a fastball that had returned from the low-90s velocity back to the mid-to-high 90s speeds of the past. Nevertheless, Rocker has shown the tenacity to win even when it was not working.

10. He knows how to rock a Halloween costume

Nuff said.

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