Chris Young on why now was the time to call up top prospect Kumar Rocker

KRLD-FM / 105.3 The Fan

Rangers GM Chris Young joined the GBag Nation to discuss the team's decision to call up top prospect Kumar Rocker this week to make his Major League debut.

Transcript

00:00We're excited about the announcement that Kumar Rocker is coming up on Thursday.

00:20Can you talk to us about what went into that?

00:22Yeah, it's just a really exciting day for our franchise and for our fans.

00:27Ultimately, Kumar has earned the opportunity to get called up and there's a lot that goes

00:33into it.

00:34But ultimately, we've kind of covered every angle in terms of our decision-making process,

00:40starting with the medical side.

00:41And Kumar has passed all the tests from a medical standpoint.

00:44He's fully healthy.

00:45He's out of rehab mode and in game mode, compete mode.

00:49And from there, it becomes more of a baseball decision and what's right for the player,

00:55for the team, how much experience does he need in the minor leagues, weighing that

00:59with the experience that he would get at the big league level.

01:02But I think the most important piece of this is that we talk about internally all the time

01:07that this is a performance-based game and Kumar has earned the opportunity.

01:11He has done everything he possibly can in terms of his performance to earn this call-up.

01:16And kudos to him.

01:18I'm so happy for him.

01:19He's a great, great person.

01:21And I think he's going to look great in a Rangers uniform.

01:24What do you think about the talk that his numbers compare favorably to what Paul Skeens

01:29was able to do in his seven minor league appearances?

01:32You know, I didn't realize that.

01:34That's not something we compared necessarily when we were making this decision.

01:37So I wasn't aware of really how close those numbers are to each other.

01:44But what I will say is that he's an elite competitor and Paul Skeens is an elite competitor

01:48and they're extremely talented pitchers.

01:51When you have the mental to go with the physical, those guys seem to do special things.

01:55And I put nothing past Kumar in terms of his ability to compete and perform.

02:00And that's why we're calling him up.

02:02How important is it with the economics of baseball today?

02:07Is there a concerted effort to see these young guys up early to be a way to balance off some

02:13of the big spending that you have to do elsewhere on the roster?

02:16Well, there's no doubt.

02:19It's not part of our decision making specific to Kumar.

02:22It's really for every organization, the more homegrown talent you can have and cheaper

02:27younger players, the more flexibility it gives you to sign veteran players to complete your

02:32roster.

02:33So there is certainly a benefit to it, but it's not why we made this decision.

02:37But it's why a pipeline of talent in the farm system is so critically important to the success

02:42of any organization.

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