Top Pitching Prospects Must Perform Well For Texas Rangers To Avoid Letdown

Will the young pitching prospects of the Texas Rangers step up after injuries propelled them into the rotation?

Mar 31, 2025; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher Kumar Rocker (80) pitches against the Cincinnati Reds in the first inning at Great American Ball Park. | Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

With the 2025 campaign starting off for the Texas Rangers, the team is off to a solid start to the year. 

It was a frustrating season for the Rangers in 2024. Despite being the defending champions, the franchise struggled to get off the ground. 

Injuries were a major storyline for the team, and Texas simply didn’t have the pieces in place to weather the storm. 

This winter, the franchise seemingly did a nice job making sure they had a plethora of depth both in their lineup and starting rotation. 

The team was hoping to avoid injuries once again in 2025, but that unfortunately went south late into spring training. 

Once again, the rotation had to deal with two projected starters in Jon Gray and Cody Bradford, both starting the year on the injured list. 

With the timeline for both looking like early summer, the Rangers are going to need some of their talented prospects to step up and live up to expectations. 

Kennedi Landry of MLB.com recently spoke about the one thing that must go right for the Rangers to start the season being their young pitchers stepping up with injuries, once again becoming a storyline. 

“What actually needs to go right is health. Considering that already hasn’t happened due to Cody Bradford (elbow soreness) and Jon Gray (wrist fracture) both opening the season on the injured list, guys need to step up in the rotation. Rookies Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker specifically.”

There aren’t too many teams in baseball that have the elite pitching prospects like Texas does to place in their rotation. 

So far, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker don’t have a ton of MLB experience, but that will likely begin to change. 

The two right-handers figure to be fixtures in the starting rotation for the next couple of months, and both will have the opportunity to prove themselves. 

Between the two, Rocker seems to be more highly regarded at this point than Leiter, but both have a high upside. 

To start the campaign, Leiter got off to a nice start in his first game of the campaign. The right-hander allowed just one run in five innings of work in his season debut. 

For Rocker, things didn’t go as smoothly. He was roughed up, allowing six runs in three innings of work. 

While the sample size is small after just one start, it is important for the Rangers to get some positive production out of these two. 

Since both are highly regarded prospects and figure to be in the long-term plans of Texas, good performances to start the year could result in them becoming permanent starters for the rest of the season. 

If the Rangers are going to avoid what happened to them in 2024 with the injuries derailing their season, their young right-handers must pitch well.