The Mets will be happy to hear that their drafting of Jacob DeGrom was a bust....cuz he had TJ surgery.
Overreact much?

twilly said:

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I believe some people thought Rocker would be big club ready within 2 years of being drafted. Therefore, he's a bust in that sense. Doesn't mean he's never going to make it, just not on the fast track.

If you want to Monday morning qb, would they have picked somebody else given a potential 2 year delay on his development?

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They did pick someone else. They got Rocker cheap for where he was picked, and then got a 1st round rated HS pitcher in Brock Porter. That was the strategy....take the risk on Rocker, save $$, and throw it at Porter (who was committed & going to Clemson). Porter is 19, in low A, and currently has an ERA of 1.37. Rocker had pitched 28 innings with 42 Ks and a 3.86 ERA in high A, likely a month away from being called up to AA.

Injuries happen, especially to pitchers. Calling him a bust at this point is knee jerk nonsense.

Quote:

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We won't see him pitch until he's maybe 26

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Jacob DeGrom debuted in the majors one month shy of his 26th birthday.

The whole Rocker saga has been strange. Dude probably needed TJ in 2021.

The Rocker pick was a high risk/high reward gamble that the Rangers took. It allowed them to draft and then sign Porter, the best HS pitcher in the draft. TJ surgery isn't the career-threatening procedure it was a decade + ago, players routinely come back from it, in many cases throwing better than they did prior to the surgery. Nathan Eovaldi, fwiw, has had TJ surgery.

Yes, it sucks that he'll be shelved for 18 months, but that particular injury is fairly frequent with pitchers. There's no way to see it coming or really even prevent it. You just have to deal with it if it happens.

Rocker may never pitch an inning for the Rangers - for that matter, Brock Porter might not either. But it's really an emotional overreach to assume that he's a bust at this point.

Tksymm7 said:

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I get what you're saying, and the Porter argument is fair because he was seen as the best HS pitching prospect by almost everyone. But this isn't just an injury. This is TJ. An injury that takes away, for some, up to two years of your career away. This is also TJ for a guy who really only had two pitches to begin with and was working hard on a third. Now he won't touch a ball for 18 months. I hope I'm wrong because I'm sick and tired of the Rangers whiffing on pitching prospects, but this doesn't fill me with hope.

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He's gonna touch a ball well before 18 months. This isn't a two year injury from doing anything. It's maybe two years before you're fully back in shape.