Proper-handed Rangers pitching prospect Alejandro Rosario is prone to miss the 2025 season as a result of an elbow damage, president of baseball operations Chris Younger instructed reporters (together with Kennedi Landry of MLB.com). Rosario would require surgical procedure, although Younger was reluctant to supply any concrete particulars.
“It’s probably UCL,” Younger stated, as relayed by Landry. “I don’t need to formally say, however yeah, it’s elbow and can in all probability require Tommy John.”
The 23-year-old was a fifth-round choose by the Rangers within the 2023 draft. It’s a brutal blow for the righty, who was nothing wanting sensational in his first season as a professional in 2024. He cut up the yr between Single-A and Excessive-A, pitching to a sterling 2.24 ERA total with 88 1/3 innings of labor. He struck out an unimaginable 36.9% of opponents confronted in complete final yr whereas strolling simply 3.7% of batters. It was an enormous leap ahead for a participant who by no means posted an ERA beneath 5.00 throughout his collegiate profession.
Sadly, that unimaginable breakout will likely be placed on maintain for the 2025 marketing campaign. Whereas specifics of what actual process Rosario will bear haven’t but been made public, even an inner brace process comes with a couple of yr of rehab time, with full Tommy John requiring an extended rehab that may probably stretch into the 2026 season. Rosario appeared on monitor to both begin 2025 at Double-A or earn a promotion to the extent early within the marketing campaign, however these plans must be scuttled for the yr. That appears prone to delay his large league debut till 2027 on the earliest, certainly a disappointing improvement for each the Rangers and the righty himself.
Happily for Texas, they’re hardly brief on beginning pitching choices for the 2025 marketing campaign. Nathan Eovaldi, Jacob deGrom, Jon Grey, Tyler Mahle, and Cody Bradford at present challenge because the membership’s beginning 5 on Opening Day, with Dane Dunning additionally on the roster as a possible swing man. That roster is supplemented by a handful of younger prospects, together with former first-round picks Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter. Each of them made their large league debuts in 2024; Leiter struggled via 35 2/3 innings of labor with an 8.83 ERA, although he did pitch to a 3.51 ERA in 77 innings of labor on the Triple-A degree. That’s a very spectacular determine given the inflated offensive atmosphere of the Pacific Coast League and his wonderful 33.3% strikeout fee.
Rocker, in the meantime, confirmed out in a three-start cup of espresso late within the yr with a 3.86 ERA and three.68 FIP. He was even higher within the minors, with simply three earned runs allowed throughout seven begins between the Double- and Triple-A ranges final yr after getting back from Tommy John surgical procedure earlier within the yr. The presence of Leiter and Rocker, in addition to different kids like Emiliano Teodo, ought to assist the Rangers to climate Rosario’s delayed large league timeline whilst Grey and Mahle head without spending a dime company after the 2025 season.
