Forgives us here at Rangers Rounding 3rd for still being in early season pun mode. We weren’t able to work out all the silly word plays in spring due to missing some time with syntax errors.

Speaking of that, it’s another day, another debut of a Texas Rangers starter who missed time with injury last year, and this spring.

This time, it’s Nathan Eovaldi.

The thirty-three-year-old native Texan is another starter in the Rangers revamped rotation who is coming off an injury-shortened season, but one that was miles ahead of anything any Rangers pitchers other than Martin Perez was able to cobble together last year.

In 2022, Eovaldi started twenty games, had a 6-3 record, with a 3.87 ERA, which is about where his ERA has been the last few seasons. The season before that, he was an All-Star and finished fourth in Cy Young voting.

He relies primarily on an 89-miles-per-hour splitter, and a four-seam fastball at 96. He also mixes in a cutter, curve, and a slider. According to his profile on Brooks Baseball, his splitter is thrown extremely hard, dives down an out of the zone, generates fewer whiffs/swings…resulting in somewhat more flyballs.” About his fastball: “It’s a real worm killer that generates an extreme number of groundballs…with well above-average velo.”

At the end of December, the Rangers signed Eovaldi to a two-year deal, with a possibility for three. While Eovaldi isn’t a perennial all-star, compared to what the Rangers perennially run out to the mound, he is a welcome sight.

The Nathan Eovali era begins today. Here’s to a long, injury-free tenure with the Rangers.

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