How Texas Rangers Rookie Duo Could Reshape the Franchise in 2025

The Texas Rangers have had a tough start to the year when it comes to their starting pitcher rotation and setbacks. With Jon Gray and Cody Bradford both dealing with injuries that will land them on the Injured List to start the season, changes had to be made to fill the gaps.

The team would ultimately decide to bring rookies Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter up to "The Show" after both made their MLB debuts in 2024. These two players won a National Championship together at Vanderbilt in 2021, and will now be in the same rotation once again at the MLB level, alongside Nathan Eovaldi, Jacob deGrom, and Tyler Mahle.

Now things become interesting, as both players had hit-or-miss beginnings to their MLB careers last season in minimal playing time, but spring training showed immense improvement for one while the other struggled at times.

Rocker started off well during the 2024 season after coming back from 2023 Tommy John surgery, in 11.2 innings he would post a 3.86 ERA, with a 1.543 WHIP, 14 strikeouts to six walks, and only gave up one home run in three starts. This spring he has had a much tougher go of things however, posting a 9.00 ERA and 2.08 WHIP, but he did have 20 strikeouts to nine walks despite the earned runs total being poor.

As for Leiter, he was somewhat the opposite, putting together an 8.83 ERA, 1.710 WHIP, and 31 strikeouts to 17 walks in 35.2 innings at the Major League level in 2024. But this spring he has turned it around, accruing a 3.48 ERA, 1.55 WHIP, 21 strikeouts to 10 walks, and only one home run allowed in 20.2 innings.

So, how can these two players change the trajectory of the franchise for 2025? All it takes is living up to the expectations set out for them as former top three picks in the MLB draft. These two players have been in the farm system for a few seasons now, building their repertoire and learning what it takes to compete at the MLB level.

Both have shown dominance at various points in their careers, and the strikeout stuff is there for both players without a shadow of a doubt. They have now been given the opportunity to start for the Rangers, and if they can both perform at an above-average level, the ceiling on the rotation will grow immensely.

deGrom is going to need time to fully work his way back to workhorse status, but Eovaldi, Mahle, Gray, and Bradford are all solid to very good pitchers. When the latter two recover from injury, the team could consider moving over to a six-man rotation to really utilize their talent to the best of their ability.

Regardless, this is an immense amount of potentially high-end talent all in one pitching group, and it gives Texas something they have not had in awhile, options. The best teams in the MLB have great depth and ways to fix things if or when injuries come about.

The Rangers are facing this problem early on, but with the two rookies now getting a chance, if they can perform well it completely changes the entire dynamic of the team.

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