The Rangers can’t let their best start in franchise history hinge on Jacob deGrom’s health
ARLINGTON — Searching for a proper adjective to describe the wonder that is Jacob deGrom on the pitcher’s mound, Rangers general manager Chris Young pulled “captivating,” out of the air Monday afternoon. Good word. Fitting.
Alas, it will be a while longer before they spend another enchanted evening together.
On Monday, the Rangers moved deGrom from the 15-day IL to the 60-day as part of a shuffle that included optioning struggling reliever Jonathan Hernández to the minors and activating starter-turned-reliever Spencer Howard from his own 60-day IL stint. By placing deGrom on the 60-day IL, it means he does not count against the 40-man roster. It also means he can’t return before June 28.
That’s the earliest. It could be longer. Young can’t be sure. The Rangers will do a follow-up MRI on Tuesday. The first one, back in late April, didn’t show anything more than right elbow inflammation, the Rangers said at the time. He has thrown five bullpen sessions since, the last coming on Wednesday. Then he went to Florida for the weekend for the birth of his third child. It’s not like he threw for the last few days. But when he returned, the Rangers figured more time and tests were the right way to go.
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“We want to proceed cautiously and do right by him,” Young said. “That’s the biggest factor for this move. We want to make sure the inflammation is gone. We want to see progress for the symptoms. [Soreness] has come and gone. He’s had good days and bad. It’s not been linear.”
Maybe Tuesday’s MRI will show something more distressing. Perhaps not. Maybe this was just the prudent move for a guy who hasn’t faced hitters in 37 days and was inactive over the weekend.
This is part of the deal with deGrom. The Rangers understood it when they entered a five-year, $185 million contract with him that drove the Winter of Pitching. They knew deGrom was a unicorn. And they knew it would take a lot to maintain the rainbow around him.
So far, so good. The day after deGrom complained of elbow soreness — not to be confused with the day of wrist soreness or when he arrived to spring training with side stiffness — Nathan Eovaldi went out and threw up a bunch of zeroes. He hasn’t stopped since. The rest of the rotation has followed suit.
The Rangers lowered their rotation ERA to 3.16, second lowest in majors with Martin Pérez’s seven-inning, one-run outing against St. Louis on Monday.
At 39-20, the Rangers have the second-best record in baseball after their 4-3 walkoff win over the Cardinals.
They were without Corey Seager for a month, Mitch Garver for two. They’ve had deGrom for six starts, maybe half of which weren’t impacted by either pitch limits or soreness. He’s been a fleeting part of the rotation to this point.
“At the core of a successful organization, success must be sustained when a player goes down,” Young said. “You don’t want to lose too many of them. But the character of these guys has shown through, and they’ve been able to withstand it.”
So far. As he was collecting pitchers this offseason, Young kept saying “you can never have enough pitching.” Seemed a bit over the top when the Rangers went to camp with a 10-man pool for the starting rotation. Attrition is starting to creep in.
Beyond the ongoing situation with deGrom, Jake Odorizzi was lost for the year before the season started. Glenn Otto is only now about ready to begin a rehab assignment from a shoulder strain. The just-activated Howard is a reliever now. So is Cole Ragans. Both could be stretched out, but that would take time and require more shuffling around a bullpen that is only now starting to find its way.
In the minors, while Cody Bradford has stepped forward, former first-rounder Cole Winn has regressed. Zak Kent is not yet ready to face hitters after an oblique injury. Even Young acknowledged attrition had made the Rangers a little “thin” on options.
The point: The Rangers are off to the best start in franchise history and to fully capitalize on it, they can’t take for granted that deGrom will return on June 28 or July 28 or, for that matter, at all this season. If he does, they’ve got the “best pitcher in the world,” Young said of a healthy deGrom. Which is nice.
But they must also consider that he might not return. They can’t sit idly around waiting for the unicorn’s arrival. They are going to have to survey the trade market for relievers. They might as well add a starting pitcher to the list. They’ve got the capital to trade and they should have the ability to add payroll, especially now that a bankruptcy judge has ordered Diamond Sports to fork over the TV rights the Rangers are due.
It’s all expensive.
It’s the cost of unicorn maintenance these days. Rainbows don’t come cheap. And neither do World Series trophies.
Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant
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Source: The Dallas Morning News
