Gray Days

 

The good news is Jon Gray was able to get out of a loss against the Yankees while still keeping his ERA low. Because all it took to sink the Rangers the other day was one run from, of all people, Billy McKinney.

Jon Gray is one of the many veterans handing the Rangers great seasons this year, even as Jacob deGrom sits for the rest of the year [as I predicted he would when they signed him]. Gray has been a solid, consistent fireballer his whole career, never being an overwhelming standout but never completely disappointing people either. He was solid with the Rockies, and was the high-strikeout antithesis to German Marquez's low-ERA mentality. Gray's first year with Texas was alright. 4 ERA, 7-7 record. Even if expectations were relatively high, his season was lost in the shuffle of the full team's struggles.

With a better team, Gray's strengths are more evident. He's currently 6-3 with a 2.89 ERA and only 69 strikeouts. This is a Gray that's a little more careful on how hard he throws, but is equally aware of placement and mechanics. This is a smarter, less-overpowered Jon Gray, and he still fits in very well in this rotation. Gray is a strong piece of an already-strong rotation, as Nate Eovaldi, Dane Dunning, Andrew Heaney and Martin Perez are all putting in solid work. DeGrom did what he did, as he was thought to, and Jake Odorizzi hit the IL immediately upon signing, but those solid five have been everything the Rangers have wanted them to be, pure innings-eaters with consistent, admirable work that doesn't give a lot of room for the less-satisfying bullpen to mess things up.

And yet that's kinda where we've been at with this Rangers team lately. They're still strong, and they still have enough players capable of whapping balls to kingdom come, but it's been a week since they're last double-digit win. They were doing a ton in May and the beginning of June, and now they've become all the more rare. They've also had some rough matches against teams like the Blue Jays, Yankees and divisional competitor the Angels. The Angels just massacred the Rockies the other night, and are slowly inching up the standings towards the Rangers. And while the Rangers are lucky they have a series against the Tigers up next, could they have peaked too early? Even with the strength of their lineup, did they get their historic moments out of the way early?

I still think this Rangers team has more to do, but I also can't tell where this division is gonna go, considering how unpredictable all FIVE teams have been in the last month. I think Texas is still the frontrunner, but I could be proven very wrong soon.

Coming Tonight: He had a huge year in 2019, and I worried that his quieter follow-ups meant an end to his days as a star. Not quite the case.