Kumar Rocker isn’t moving to closer, Chris Young says, as focus remains on offense

Chris Young and Bruce Bochy deny a report that Kumar Rocker is under consideration to be the Texas Rangers’ closer. Jump-starting the struggling lineup is still the top priority.

ARLINGTON — If you really want to get Chris Young riled up, report something that is 100 percent not true.

The Texas Rangers‘ president of baseball operations was still miffed Monday by a USA Today report that said Rocker could transition to closer once he returns from the 15-day injured list.

It’s never been discussed, Young said. Manager Bruce Bochy also denied the report. Rocker threw three innings Friday in a rehab start with Double A Frisco and has never worked out of the bullpen.

“I don’t know where that came from,” Young said.

Asked about his level of concern for the closer’s role, Young said his focus is on the lineup, which continues to rank among the worst in baseball. The Rangers entered Monday as one of only five teams to score fewer than 200 runs (182) and were last with a .285 on-base percentage.

Things didn’t improve in the opener of a six-game homestand, a 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays. The Rangers had only five hits, and their only run came on Wyatt Langford’s 10th home run.

Jacob deGrom was the tough-luck loser, allowing two runs in 5 1/3 innings. Manager Bruce Bochy said that deGrom was removed at only 81 pitches in an effort to monitor his workload after back-to-back starts of eight and seven innings.

Monday marked three weeks since the Rangers hired Bret Boone as hitting coach after firing Donnie Ecker on May 5, and improvement has been difficult to measure while Boone continues to get a feel for the team.

Boone isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, and hitters can’t make major mechanical changes during a season. They can make minor changes in approach, though, that can lead to more base runners and, in theory, more runs.

Bochy has made changes to the batting order, including dropping Adolis Garcia to eighth and Marcus Semien to ninth. Young has made changes to the roster, including the promotion of Alejandro Osuna for his MLB debut.

Osuna collected the first two hits of his career Monday.

The impetus for the club, as Young said, is the same as it was at the end of a disappointing 2024 at the plate.

“The best improvement we can make to our team would be to get the best out of our own players,” Young said. “We haven’t done that yet. There’s more in there for most of our guys.”

The list starts with Garcia and Semien. Garcia homered Saturday and delivered the winning two-run double Sunday, but he continues to struggle with pitch recognition. That leads to falling behind in counts and more chases out of the strike zone.

Semien seems to be hitting more balls to the opposite field, though with scant results. While Garcia was hitting .213 entering Monday, Semien was stuck at .176.

Because both are premium defensive players, they will continue to be in the lineup.

“We believe in them,” Young said. “They’re very important pieces to our offense. We don’t have players who can produce at their expected levels anywhere in our system.”

And while the clock is ticking, the process takes time. Young is buoyed by the fact that the 2023 Rangers went 40-20 in their first 60 games of the season and played two games below .500 the rest of the way.

The Rangers’ best 60 could still be ahead, but it won’t happen if the offense can’t get going.

“We need to have our stretch,” Young said.

Jeff Wilson, jwilson@alldlls.com