No. 3 prospect Rosario (elbow) likely out for 2025 season

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Alejandro Rosario, MLB Pipeline¡¯s No. 50 overall prospect, suffered an elbow injury and will likely be out for the 2025 season as he requires surgery, Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young announced on Sunday.

¡°We're still kind of sorting through the diagnosis and prognosis, but probably headed that way,¡± Young said. ¡°It's likely UCL, I don't want to officially say, but yeah, it's elbow and will probably require Tommy John. ¡­ He's going to require surgery. As with all these things, we want to check the boxes and make sure we get multiple opinions. We don't want to sit on this and not announce it when we know he's going to be out, but we're still figuring out the next steps.¡±

Rosario started 2024 with Single-A Down East before earning a spot with Double-A Frisco, but he never threw a pitch for the RoughRiders and was ultimately shut down due to shoulder fatigue.

¡°It was around his innings limit,¡± Young said. ¡°He was at the end of his season. He wanted to pitch, and we felt like there was no need to push him. We had the promotion planned, wanted to get him a couple starts in Double-A and at which point we just said we're not going to mess around with this. But it was shoulder at that point. So [the elbow issues] came out of nowhere."

Rosario was a breakout prospect in 2024 after the Rangers selected him in the fifth round of the 2023 MLB Draft.

The right-hander posted a 7.11 ERA in 74 2/3 innings in his junior season at the University of Miami in 2023 and didn¡¯t even think he was going to get drafted. But the Rangers, rightfully, saw something in him.

After making a number of tweaks as suggested by the organization, he was named Texas¡¯ Minor League Pitcher of the Year, posting a 2.24 ERA with 129 strikeouts and just 13 walks in 18 games (17 starts) between Down East and High-A Hickory. His 9.92 strikeout-to-walk ratio last season was the highest single-season mark by a Rangers farmhand since it was first tracked in 2005 (min. 80 IP).

He skyrocketed from unranked in Pipeline¡¯s Top 30 Rangers prospects to No. 3 and into the Top 100 prospects in all of baseball.

¡°Yeah, bad news there,¡± Young said. ¡°I feel really badly for him. Obviously, he had a tremendous year last year, and we were very excited about where he's progressed and where he is. But as with pitching, this is part of the progression, and we've got a great medical team and we're confident we'll nurse him back to full health in time, and he'll be fine.¡±