Rangers are counting on healthy rotation
The continued delay of Jacob deGrom's debut at spring training shows the potentially perilous situation the Texas Rangers could have with the veteran starting pitchers they added during the offseason.
Two-time National League Cy Young Award winner deGrom, former All-Star righthanders Nathan Eovaldi and Jake Odorizzi, and left-handers Andrew Heaney and Danny Duffy have more than 1,000 combined big league starts among them. Each is in his 30s and going into at least his 10th season in the majors.
Except none of them pitched a full season for their former teams in 2022.
Their biggest offseason acquisition was deGrom, who was limited to 156 1/3 innings over 26 starts the past two seasons for the New York Mets. After throwing off the mound a half-dozen times before getting to Arizona, the right-hander, who signed a $185 million, fiveyear contract in December, mentioned to Rangers officials before the first scheduled workout Wednesday that he felt some tightness in his left side.
“I did a lot of throwing, more than normal just to get in a good spot,” deGrom said. “And then, you know, I was very aggravated with something little like this to pop up. But I think the bright side is how good my arm feels and where my stuff was at throwing off the mound at home.”
Manager Bruce Bochy said he expected deGrom to throw “real soon,” but not Saturday. The Rangers have described holding out deGrom as precautionary, and not unusual.
The Rangers, after their sixth consecutive losing season, started the offseason by acquiring Odorizzi in a trade from Atlanta before retaining All-Star left-hander Martin Pérez on a $19.65 million qualifying offer.
Then came the signing of deGrom and the additions of Heaney and Eovaldi on multiyear deals later in December. Duffy, who never pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers last year while recovering from left elbow surgery, is in camp as a nonroster invitee.
“It's exciting. I think everybody should be excited. I know I am,” catcher Jonah Heim said about the pitching additions before going to spring training. “It's going to be a great staff. If everybody can stay healthy, we're going to have a great year.” That certainly is the key. “Ultimately we have targets in mind, in terms of opening day being a significant one. And then obviously, wanting these guys healthy in October as well, and finishing strong,” said general manager Chris Young, a former big league pitcher. “We need to have these guys over the duration of the season and if we're going to get to where we want to go, our hope is to be playing baseball in October.”
There were nearly 13 months between big league appearances for deGrom before he went 5-4 with a 3.08 ERA in 11 starts after his '22 season debut on Aug. 2. He had a career-low 1.08 ERA over 92 innings in 2021 before missing the final three months with right forearm tightness and a sprained elbow, then was shut down late in spring training last year because of a stress reaction in his right scapula. TEAMS AT AN ADVANTAGE IN ARBITRATION >> Seattle Mariners outfielder Teoscar Hernández was among five players who lost their salary arbitration cases on Saturday and Angels outfielder Hunter Renfroe won as teams finished with a 13-6 advantage in decisions.
Angels infielder Gio Urshela, Tampa Bay relievers Colin Poche and Ryan Thompson and St. Louis reliever Génesis Cabrera also lost their cases.
Teams won the majority of decisions for the fourth straight year and have a 347-257 record since arbitration began in 1974.
Hernández, acquired from Toronto in a November trade, will receive $14 million instead of his request for $16 million. The previous high for an arbitration case that went to a decision was $13.5 million by pitcher Gerrit Cole in his 2019 win over Houston and by pitcher Max Fried in his loss to Atlanta this year.
Renfroe will get $11.9 million instead of the Angels' offer of $11.25 million..
Urshela gets $8.4 million instead of $10 million. Thompson receives $1 million rather than $1.2 million and Poche gets $1,175,000 instead of $1.3 million.
Tampa Bay split four decisions, losing earlier to outfielder Harold Ramírez ($2.2 million) and reliever Jason Adam ($1,775,000).
Cabrera gets $950,000 instead of $1.15 million.
The 19 hearings this year were up from 13 last year and the most since 22 in 2018.
Among the players who swapped figures with their teams on Jan. 13, 14 reached agreements without hearings.
There were about 200 players eligible for arbitration heading into the week of the exchange. Eleven players wound up with mulityear contracts topped by Houston pitcher Cristian Javier with a five-year deal, and the Mets' Jeff McNeil and Tampa Bay's Jeffrey Springs with four years each.
Tampa Bay's Yandy Díaz and Pete Fairbanks agreed to three-year deals along with Philadelphia's José Alvarado, Toronto's Bo Bichette, Seattle's Dylan Moore and Minnesota's Chris Paddack.
An All-Star in 2021, Hernández hit .267 with 25 homers and 77 RBIs in 131 games last year for Toronto, then was traded to Seattle for right-hander reliever Erik Swanson and minor league lefty Adam Macko.