It’s said every season and every season it’s true. You can never have enough pitching. 

The Rangers went into the season with an expected rotation of Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Tyler Mahle, Cody Bradford, and Jon Gray. With Dane Dunning, Jack Leiter, and Kumar Rocker waiting in the wings.

They didn’t have to wait long. Gray and Bradford went down before the season started. That prompted Chris Young to sign, out of sheer desperation, Patrick Corbin. Now Eovaldi and Mahle are down. 

The Rangers rotation is now being held together by paperclips and duct tape. Of the original five arms, only deGrom is still standing. And he is the most surprising of all considering his past injury history.

Now, it’s deGrom, Corbin, Leiter, Rocker, and a bullpen game. Eovaldi is due back soon. Gray and Bradford are working their way back. Mahle too. 

But this will lead to another pitching dilemma. The Rangers are going to need to conserve their innings. It’s an entire staff built on injury-prone arms that have not logged many innings lately.

DeGrom pitched ten innings last year, thirty the year before. In fact, he hasn’t thrown over 100 innings since 2021. This year, he is at eighty-two. 

Gray pitched only 102 innings last year. Bradford tossed seventy-six. Mahle threw twelve (and hasn’t thrown more than 100 innings since 2022). Only Eovaldi and Corbin worked a full workload last year with Nathan going 170 innings and Patrick 174.

Assuming Gray and Bradford come back full strength, and with Eovaldi and Mahle being out for a bit, their time off will at least work as an unintentional but welcome limit on their innings and on the and the wear and tear on their arms, which have already been worn and torn. 

Right now, this rotation that has been such a strength for the Rangers, is in tatters. When they get their four starters back, it’s going to be like the Rangers traded for some top-quality arms. 

All they will need then is a couple more bats.

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