Monday, June 23, 2025

deRevenge

 


The Texas Rangers have four people on their pitching staff whose entire personality is missing entire seasons of baseball due to injury. FOUR. And three of them are currently injured, and for some reason this is surprising to them. Like 'oh no, we have to bring up Dane Dunning and have him start, this is a disas-' YOU KNOWINGLY SIGNED TYLER MAHLE AND NATE EOVALDI. You KNOW what their deal is. Eo obviously has more healthy moments these days, but you know the drill.

You know who hasn't gotten injured yet, and I say this with trepidation because he never usually makes it out of June? That's right. Your favorite hurler and mine, Jacob deGrom. For all of you worried that he'd never pitch a full season again, I give you the satisfying news that with his next start, deGrom will have his 16th start of a year, a feat not surpassed since before the pandemic. 2020 was his last full campaign, which is...a wild and troubling stat. And in this healthy, revitalized year, deGrom is, unsurprisingly, pitching like his old self. So far he's got a 2.24 ERA, a 7-2 record and 87 Ks. For the Rangers, who have been surprisingly mediocre this year, deGrom has been the rock. 

In other words, Jacob deGrom is doing exactly what the Rangers signed him to do: stand there and not let runs score. It took him three seasons to do so consistently and for more than a month, but here he is. 

What's funny is that because the Rangers are struggling, and because deGrom is about halfway through his Texas contract, you're already hearing rumors he'll be dealt. One very fun rumor links him back to the Mets, who, while not completely out of luck rotation wise, have routinely needed a fifth man in times of injury. If Montas and Manaea return and stay healthy, and if Senga eventually returns, this may not be needed, but people have been talking about it. If you'd asked deGrom, of course he'd want to return to Queens. He'd play for a competitor, and he'd actually get run support. Whenever the Rangers have run support he's hurt. He's healthy this year, the Rangers score some runs but then forget to a lot of the time. 

Honestly, though, if it's not the Mets it'll be someone disappointing. The Dodgers would piss me off, the Astros would piss me off, the Cardinals would piss me off. The Yankees would piss YOU ALL off, I dunno if we'd need it but I'd take the help. There's always gonna be that liability, though, with deGrom, which is 'will he last til October?' He did in 2015, but he was younger then. He's 37 now. Every start he's aware of the risk. He's trying his best to pitch like he always does without missing more time, and so far he's doing well. But seeing as Chris Sale just got hurt again, the risk has to loom. 

I hope deGrom has a season he's proud of, wherever he ends up going, if anywhere. After all that rotten luck, he deserves one.

Coming Tomorrow- Proof that getting the hell out of Chicago can save careers. 

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