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In the 2022 MLB Draft, Gavin Cross was taken ninth overall by the Kansas City Royals. The Virginia Tech outfielder had just wrapped up an outstanding three-year career with the Hokies.

In his “freshman” season in 2020, he started all 16 games and hit .369, recording seven multi-hit performances before the pandemic cut the season short.

His next season was considered his true freshman campaign, and he became the first freshman in program history to earn All-ACC First Team honors. He also led the team with a .345 batting average. The talent was obvious, and he looked destined for the big leagues. After another strong season, the Royals selected him ninth overall.

Cross carried that success into his first professional season, slashing .312/.437/.633 between the ACL and Columbia with the Fireflies.

At that point, he appeared to be moving quickly through the minors, with the potential to become the next big thing in Kansas City. He opened the 2023 season in High-A Quad Cities and even reached Double-A Northwest Arkansas by year’s end. However, he struggled mightily, hitting just .206/.300/.383.

It didn’t add up. How does a hitter who had posted .300-plus seasons for four straight years suddenly look lost at the plate?

The answer came later. Cross made three separate trips to the emergency room before doctors diagnosed him with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, a serious tick-borne illness. Though he was treated with antibiotics, the disease left him physically drained and effectively derailed his season.

The illness is relatively rare, affecting only a few thousand people in the United States each year, according to the CDC.

In other words, a rare condition cost Cross one of the most important developmental seasons of his career and set him back on his path to the majors.

Since then, Cross has somewhat rebounded, spending the last two seasons in Double-A and putting together respectable numbers, hitting .261 and .241 with 32 combined home runs.

Now entering his age-25 season, time is beginning to feel like a factor. Prospects such as Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen have surged up the system, and Cross has faded from the spotlight.

However, with players away for the World Baseball Classic this spring, Cross received an extended opportunity in Arizona—and he made the most of it. He hit .281/.324/.500 with two home runs. The 14 strikeouts are a concern, but elevated strikeout rates are common in today’s game.

He won’t open the season in Kansas City. More likely, he returns to Double-A, though he seems close to breaking through to Triple-A Omaha.

And given the Royals’ outfield struggles over the past two seasons, opportunities could arise. If players like Starling Marte or Lane Thomas fail to produce, or if injuries hit, Cross could finally get his chance to reach the majors and live up to his draft status.

It would make for a compelling comeback story, especially after the lost season caused by Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. The earliest realistic timeline for a call-up would be late July or early August, but he’s an easy player to root for, and one who still has a chance to fulfill the expectations placed on him four years ago.

1900
The still-minor league White Sox purchase second baseman Dick Padden from the Washington Senators. In truth, Padden was sold to Detroit, but in some transaction lost to time, Padden ended up on the South Side, as the White Sox’s first player-manager. (Charles Comiskey is regarded as the 1900 team’s manager, but player-managers were the norm at the time, so at most the two men co-managed the White Sox.)

Padden, then 29, had his best season — unsurprising having moved “down” from the National League to the then-minor American. He hit a career-best .284 with another career high, 36 steals, while playing in 130 of Chicago’s 135 games.

Oh, and Padden led the White Sox to the first AL pennant, with an 82-53 record.

When the White Sox moved into the major leagues in 1901 and enticed pitching ace Clark Griffith to jump to the AL, part of the proviso was granting Griffith the manager’s role. Thus Madden re-jumped back to the National League, and the St. Louis Cardinals.

2006
The White Sox pull off what turns out to be a terrific deal, in a swap of blue-chippers. Seattle sends its ballyhooed southpaw Matt Thornton to Chicago for outfielder Joe Borchard.

Borchard was a first round (No. 12 overall) pick in 2000 but beyond hitting what is still the longest home run in new Sox Park history (504 feet) in 2004 never had a single positive-WAR season. He lasted for six games in Seattle before being placed on waivers in May.

Thornton, the No. 22 overall pick in 1998 by the M’s, fell under the tutelage of pitching coach Don Cooper, conquered his control issues, and became a dominant reliever for the better part of a decade. Right away, he contributed to White Sox success, with an outstanding 1.7 WAR and 3.33 ERA in 2006. Over his seven-plus years in Chicago he tallied a 3.28 ERA/3.02 FIP and 10.8 WAR over 512 games, and was named an All-Star in 2010.

2009
The White Sox swapped shortstop Sergio Santos — signed as a minor league free agent on January 12 — to the San Francisco Giants. Whether explicitly plotted or not, this deal seemed to be predicated on giving Santos one final shot to make it in baseball as a hitter. Support for this hypothesis comes in the form of Santos failing to make an impact with San Francisco at the end of Spring Training and getting shipped back to Chicago on April 1 — at which point his transformation from hitter to relief pitcher began.

Just one year later, Santos broke north with the White Sox — as a key setup man in the bullpen.

2011
Just two weeks after his unprecedented return to the field after lat surgery, Jake Peavy’s rotator cuff put his status to make the Opening Day roster in question. He’ll end up missing the first month-plus of the season with soreness, allowing Philip Humber to make his mark on the season. The rotation pitches so well in Peavy’s absence that upon his return the White Sox briefly adopt a six-man rotation, novel for the time.

On the season, Peavy is medicore, going 7-7 with 18 starts and a 1.1 WAR. His 4.92 ERA looks horrible until considering his 3.21 WHIP. In 2012, Peavy will come back and pitch the best non-Cy Young season of his career, with 5.0 WAR.

Paul Mirabella pitched in the big leagues for 13 years, tossing nearly 500 innings for six different teams, mostly in relief. He was never an All-Star, never a league leader, never a closer, and never appeared in the playoffs. Considering those facts, his longevity is a remarkable achievement and a testament to power of a lefty arm that teams can dream on.

Paul Thomas Mirabella
Born: March 20, 1954 (Belleville, NJ)
Yankees Tenure: 1979

Mirabella was born just 20 miles from his future home at Yankee Stadium, in Belleville, NJ. A standout at Parsippany High and Montclair State University, the Rangers made the youngster their first-round pick in the 1976 MLB Draft. Mirabella rose quickly through their system, making his big-league debut in his third professional season. He struggled in a cup of coffee with Texas, allowing 18 runs in 28 innings.

That offseason, the 24-year-old would be a central figure in a blockbuster deal. Despite winning the Cy Young Award in 1977, the following season Sparky Lyle lost his closer job to Goose Gossage, making him expendable (and personally interested in a change of scenery regardless). The Yankees spun the reliever to the Rangers in a nine-player trade that also brought back Dave Righetti, who would spend 11 years in New York, winning Rookie of the Year honors in ’81, throwing a no-hitter in ’83 and making two All-Star teams after converting to closer a few years later.

Central to the deal was Mirabella himself. With Lyle departing, the Yankees needed to replace the sole lefty in their bullpen. And, while Mirabella could not reasonably be expected to replicate the three-time All-Star’s performance on the mound, he helped the Yankees fill an area of need.

Despite his status as the team’s lone lefty reliever, Mirabella was not guaranteed a spot on the Yankees’ roster out of spring training camp, instead competing with several others for a final bullpen slot. “If I do get sent on to Columbus, I’m going to be disappointed,” said Mirabella at the time. “It will be a letdown, but I’d have to pick up the pieces and do well. Whatever decision they make, I’ll accept it. I won’t fight it. I won’t tell them I’m going to go home. I’ll do what they say.”

He would win out, debuting in the season’s fourth game on April 10th. Brought on to face the left-handed Al Bumbry, he allowed a single that loaded the bases and was promptly removed. It was a sign of things to come. As our own Matt Ferenchick detailed a few years back, Mirabella’s time in New York was a disaster. He allowed 14 earned runs in 14.1 innings, putting up an astonishing -1.0 bWAR in limited action, and would end up spending most of the year down at Triple-A Columbus after all.

That offseason, Mirabella was once again involved in a memorable transaction. This time, he joined erstwhile playoff hero Chris Chambliss and up-and-comer Dámaso García in shipping up north to Toronto in a deal that brought back catcher Rick Cerone, a fellow New Jersey native who would finish seventh in MVP voting the following season and end up spending seven years with the team. (Incidentally, Cerone would be dealt for Brian Fisher, who by sheer coincidence, we profiled two days ago for his birthday.) For his part, Mirabella would embark on a nomadic career that took him back to Texas, then to Baltimore, then Seattle, and finally Milwaukee. It was on that last stop that he posted a career year in 1988 at the age of 34, recording a 1.65 ERA in 60 innings for a Brewers squad that missed the playoffs by just two games.

Mirabella hung up his cleats after the 1990 season. While his time in New York was a lowlight in his career, the left-hander bounced back admirably to have a long run in the show. Join us in wishing a happy 72nd birthday to Belleville’s own, Paul Mirabella.

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

After legendary Mets broadcaster Howie Rose announced his retirement Thursday, he took to social media to send a message to fans in Queens.

“Seriously, I am absolutely overwhelmed by your kind words and thoughts. I cannot even begin to articulate how deeply you’ve touched me, not just yesterday but over all these years. Let’s have a great time this season. You truly are the best. Much love,” Rose wrote Friday morning in a post on X.

Rose, 72, will retire after the 2026 season and is scheduled to work only Mets’ home games this season, barring a postseason run.

He’s previously served as an emcee for certain on-field events and could remain in that capacity as well.

“Trust me, I did not arrive at this decision to retire easily,” Rose said in a video posted by the Mets on Thursday. “I have been going back and forth in my mind about it for the last few years. But the simple reality is that I am 72 years old and my wife Barbara, who has sacrificed so much for so long, deserves to have her husband around a little more often — whether she likes it or not.

“Time is getting short for that, at least as far as I’m concerned…I have got to hit the gas here, but there is only so much that I can control,” he added.

Rose also revealed in the video that he won’t be making a “clean break” and wants to stay involved with the organization after this season.

For Gary Cohen, the Mets’ lead voice in its SNY booth since 2006, the news hit hard, even though the two had conversations about Rose’s retirement in recent years.

“It still hit like a ton of bricks because it’s such a huge piece of the Mets’ firmament that will be going away,” Cohen said.

Rose has been a part of Mets broadcasts since 1987, eventually switching to radio in 2004.

He also called the NHL’s New York Rangers and Islanders at different points earlier in his career.

Across his career, Rose had numerous iconic calls, from Mike Piazza’s home run following the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 to Pete Alonso’s go-ahead long ball against the Brewers in the 2024 Wild Card series.

Royals fans can get a glimpse of the future this afternoon, as MLB hosts Spring Breakout games today. Top prospects like catcher Blake Mitchell, outfielder Sean Gamble, and pitcher Kendry Chourio are on the 27-man roster that will take on Texas Rangers prospects at 3 p.m. CT in Arizona. All Spring Breakout games will be broadcast live and fully available on MLB’s digital platforms (MLB.com, MLB.TV, and the MLB app).

The Royals will serve as the visiting team in their contest at Surprise Stadium. The original 40-man roster was narrowed to a 27-man active roster for today’s game, with a roster that also includes top pitching prospect Felix Arronde, hard-throwing Dennis Colleran, 2025 draft pick Justin Lamkin, speedster Asbel Gonzalez, former first-round pick Gavin Cross, and top hitting prospects like Ramon Ramirez, Yandel Ricarod, Daniel Vazquez, and Carson Roccaforte.

This is the third consecutive year MLB has held the Spring Breakout series, giving teams a chance to showcase their top prospects. Action began yesterday, and 16 games will be held through the weekend. Next year, MLB will organize the games as a tournament.

With the 2025 Texas Rangers season having come to an end, we shall be, over the course of the offseason, taking a look at every player who appeared in a major league game for the Texas Rangers in 2025.

Today we are looking at pitcher Kumar Rocker.

There were a number of individual disappointing seasons for the Texas Rangers in 2025. I’m not sure any of them, however, were as disappointing as Kumar Rocker’s 2025 campaign.

Remember how hyped we were about Rocker at the end of 2024? Returning from Tommy John surgery and destroying AA and AAA batters — 3 runs allowed in 29.2 IP, 47 of 106 batters fanned, just four walks. Making his major league debut in Seattle and getting 17 swinging strikes on 74 pitches while striking out seven and allowing one run in four innings, followed by a couple of decent, if not as dominant, outings to finish the season.

Rocker entered 2025 as a consensus top 50 prospect, with Baseball America having him at #20 overall, and injury concerns being the main reason he wasn’t a consensus top 20-25 prospect. It seemed like he was ready to step into a major league rotation and immediately contribute, while offering the ceiling of a legitimate top of the rotation starter. Rocker seemed especially impressive in contrast to fellow Vandy Boy Jack Leiter, who seemed completely overmatched in the majors in 2024.

Rocker was not, as it turned out, ready to step into a major league rotation and immediately contribute in 2025.

Rocker did start the season in the rotation, out of necessity as much as anything else after a rough spring. His first start of the year was in Cincinnati. Four batters into the bottom of the first he was down 3-0 after a single-homer-single-stolen base-double sequence. He bounced back to get the next three batters, and could have gotten out of the second without allowing a run if he could have retired Matt McLain, who had hit the homer off of him in the first. McLain drew a seven pitch walk, however, and then Elly De La Cruz took Rocker’s next pitch deep for the momentum-shifting two out, three run homer. Rocker allowed a single and a walk after that, then retired the final four batters he faced, two on strikes.

It was a microcosm of what we would see from Rocker in 2025 — inefficiency, an inability to control the opponent’s running game, some ugly results, and some instances where he looked great, where you are left wondering why he isn’t performing at that high level more often.

Rocker made five starts with the Rangers before landing on the injured list with a shoulder impingement after a 1.2 inning, five run outing in Oakland. After a two game rehab assignment — one for Frisco, one for Round Rock — that saw Rocker again dominate minor leaguers, allowing 2 hits and 1 walk in seven shutout innings while striking out eight, the Rangers activated him and returned him to the rotation.

That return lasted just one start. You probably remember it — it was the game where Rocker got Jake Mangrum to hit what should have been an inning-ending ground out to first base, but Rocker didn’t cover first base, resulting in a pair of runs scoring to turn what was a 3-0 Rays lead into a 5-0 Rays lead in a game the Rangers ultimately lost 5-4.

Rocker was optioned the next day, with the plan for him to get innings for a while in Round Rock. He only made one start for the Express, though, before Tyler Mahle went to the i.l. with a rotator cuff strain, creating a hole that Rocker was brought back up to fill.

Rocker made eight more starts upon his return, and was better, superficially at least — he had a 3.95 ERA and 4.96 FIP in 41 innings, compared to an 8.87 ERA and 4.72 FIP in his first six starts of the year. His first start back saw him throw five shutout innings against the ChiSox, with six Ks against just one walk. He also had a start in July where he allowed one hit in 6.1 shutout innings against Detroit.

He continued to struggle to work deep into games, however, as he struggled to put away batters and keep his pitch counts down. And basestealers continued to be an issue for him — he allowed 11 stolen bases in 11 attempts in 2025.

Rocker’s last game in the bigs in 2025 was on July 31 — the addition of Merrill Kelly allowed the Rangers to return Rocker to AAA. He made one start for Round Rock after being sent down, then didn’t pitch again until mid-September, with the team having him work on things on the side while also seeking to limit his innings.

Kumar Rocker is really a mystery at this point, with moments where he appears elite and moments where he looks like he isn’t a major leaguer. Part of the overall inconsistency can probably be chalked up to his overall lack of innings — from his freshman season at Vanderbilt in 2019 through the end of the 2025 season Rocker has accumulated just 430.1 innings, due to a combination of the pandemic, not signing with the Mets after they drafted him in 2021, and Tommy John surgery. One of the things Bruce Bochy talked about last year, in the context of controlling the running game and the mental error on not covering first, is that Rocker is much more inexperienced from an in-game action standpoint that most pitchers of his age and ability.

Rocker’s slider is an out pitch, a legitimate weapon, and his cutter and curveball can be quality pitches as well, though his command of his curveball is too erratic for it to be something he can rely upon. However, his fastball and sinker, despite averaging in the 95-96 mph range, were pounded in 2025. His fastball is unusual, in that it lacks vertical movement but has a lot of horizontal movement — from a movement standpoint, his sinker is the more effective pitch.

The result is that Rocker isn’t generating many swings and misses with his fastball or his sinker. That’s less of an issue with the sinker, which isn’t generally a swing-and-miss pitch, than the fastball, and it may be that Rocker would be better off using his sinker as his primary fastball while using the fastball as an occasional show-me pitch. That said, he will have to command his sinker better to have success that way.

Rocker finished the 2025 season with a 5.74 ERA, a 5.74 xERA (convenient!), and a 4.88 FIP. He’s a ground ball pitcher — he was in the 80th percentile in 2025 in ground ball rate, and his ground ball rates in the minors were even higher — so should benefit from what we expect will be a good Rangers’ infield defense in 2026, though one could say the same about 2025, when the Rangers had one of the best infield defenses in the league.

Rocker appears to have a good chance of opening the 2026 season in the rotation once again, with manager Skip Schumaker calling his most recent outing “electric” (shades of Jamey Wright, I know). Jack Leiter took a step forward in 2025, after getting knocked around in 2024. Fingers crossed that his Vanderbilt teammate can do the same this year.

Previously:

Gerson Garabito

Tyler Mahle

Kyle Higashioka

Adolis Garcia

Luis Curvelo

Alejandro Osuna

Blaine Crim

Jake Burger

Jacob Webb

Nick Ahmed

Jon Gray

Carl Edwards Jr.

Josh Jung

Leody Taveras

Dustin Harris

Marc Church

Luke Jackson

Danny Coulombe

Wyatt Langford

Dylan Moore

Michael Helman

Evan Carter

Cole Winn

Rowdy Tellez

Dane Dunning

Marcus Semien

Billy McKinney

Jose Corniell

Jonah Heim

Cody Freeman

Sam Haggerty

Jacob deGrom

Merrill Kelly

Caleb Boushley

Justin Foscue

Nathan Eovaldi

Chris Martin

Patrick Corbin

Joc Pederson

Phil Maton

Corey Seager

Tucker Barnhart

Jack Leiter

Ezequiel Duran

Robert Garcia