The physical went just fine.
The Rangers on Tuesday made the signing of first-round selection right-hander Kumar Rocker official. He passed a physical, which had been the hangup last year when the New York Mets selected him 10th overall. It led to Rocker refusing the Mets trimmed-back offer, undergoing surgery and re-entering the draft. As a result, the Rangers picked him third overall. He will receive a $5.2 million bonus, three people with knowledge of negotiations told The Dallas Morning News. It is well-below the $7.587 million slot value for the pick.
The Rangers are expected to use the savings to sign fourth-round selection right-hander Brock Porter, the Gatorade National High School Player of the Year. A person with knowledge of the negotiations told The News the bonus would be $3.7 million, more than $3 million above the slot value for the pick. The announcement of that signing was still pending finalization of a physical.
The Rangers will save the pomp and circumstance of a full introduction until the team returns home from its current West Coast road trip and the trade deadline passes. Rocker will be introduced on Aug. 4. Rocker will not be made available for comment until then.
“The Texas Rangers are excited to have Kumar Rocker joining our organization,” General manager Chris Young said in a statement. “Kumar is an elite competitor with the potential to make a major contribution for the Rangers, and we look forward to watching his development. We will be working with Kumar in the short term on the appropriate training and pitching program for the remainder of the 2022 season.”
Rocker, 22, will then go to Arizona for an onboarding and assessment evaluation before the Rangers make any determination about where he will make his first affiliated start. Rocker had made five appearances for the Tri-City Valley Cats, an independent team in New York, this spring ahead of the draft to demonstrate to teams he was was healthy. The Rangers saw him throwing 94-98 mph there and also got favorable medical reports from Los Angeles-based orthopedist Dr. Neil El Attrache before selecting him third overall.
