Playoff chances, Nathan Eovaldi’s value

The Texas Rangers will be represented in spirit by right-handed pitcher Jacob deGrom at Tuesday’s All-Star game at Atlanta’s Truist. They won’t represented in practice as deGrom, 37, will not pitch in this year’s midsummer classic.

He deserves of a break anyways.

Maybe the rest of us do too after that first half.

Rangers

Here are five things we learned about the Rangers — who brought a 48-49 record into the break — last week.

Let’s take stock of where they’re at

The Rangers closed the gap in the American League West with a series win against the Astros to finish the first half and trail them by 8.5 games.

It’s not an insurmountable deficit. In 2015, for example, the Rangers trailed the Los Angeles Angels by six games at the All-Star break (and by as many as 9.5 games during the first half) but rallied to claim the lead in the middle of September and hold on to win the division crown.

Their best hope may still lie in the Wild Card race. The Rangers are just 3.5 games back of the third Wild Card spot that’s currently occupied by the Seattle Mariners. The Tampa Bay Rays, who are two games up on the Rangers, is the only team between Texas and Seattle.

The Rangers do not play Tampa Bay or the Boston Red Sox (owners of the second Wild Card spot) again this season. They do have four more games against the Seattle Mariners (July 31-Aug. 3) and three more games against the Wild Card-leading New York Yankees (Aug. 4-6).

The big three are on a big roll

The trio of second baseman Marcus Semien, shortstop Corey Seager and right fielder Adolis García combined to hit .337 with 8 home runs and 11 walks in the Rangers’ last seven games against two divisional opponents before the All-Star break. There’s no coincidence that it coincided with a seven-day span in which the Rangers scored more runs (53) than any other team in baseball and have seemingly rediscovered their offense.

Both Semien and Seager have been two of the AL’s most valuable hitters for the last month and change. Semien’s 1.9 WAR accumulated since June 1 ranks seventh among AL position players and Seager’s 1.7 WAR accumulated is tied for ninth according to FanGraphs. García, hot and cold for much of the last month, slashed .300/.364/.633 with three home runs in his last seven games before the break.

“He and Corey, they’re our two guys,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said in reference to his middle infielders Thursday in Los Angeles, though he might as well have included his right fielder. “We go as they go.”

Unquantifiable value

The Rangers will have paid right-handed pitcher Nathan Eovaldi somewhere in the ballpark of $68.6 million, according to Spotrac, over the course of his first three seasons with the team.

Not that we needed numbers to validate this, but, uh, it’s been money well spent.

Eovaldi’s performance, according to FanGraphs’ value calculator, has already been worth $62.2 million through his first two-and-a-half seasons. He’s on pace to exceed his actual contract value; his postseason performance two years ago anecdotally suggests he’s already done that and then some.

The 35-year-old started his 70th regular season game for the Rangers Sunday afternoon against the Houston Astros. His 3.24 ERA in that span is the third-lowest of any pitcher in Texas history through their first 70 games with the team.

The only two who were better through 70 starts? Jon Matlack, who had a 3.02 ERA from 1978-80, and Yu Darvish, who had a 3.21 ERA from 2012-14. Eovaldi bested Gaylord Perry (3.25), Fergie Jenkins (3.26) and Nolan Ryan (3.34) to finish third.

The joys of position player pitchers

The Angels and Rangers subjected fans to four innings of position players on the mound during their four-game series this week. Angels third baseman Kevin Newman (4 innings, 3 earned runs) handled the bulk of the workload while Rangers infielder Ezequiel Duran (1 inning, 0 earned runs) sharpened his case for high-leverage opportunities.

We kid.

But, in Thursday’s 11-4 win against the Angels, the Rangers witnessed the quirky impact of a position-player-pitcher. They’d planned for right-handed pitcher Dane Dunning to work the ninth inning of the blowout, and in the top of the ninth inning, got him up and loose in the bullpen.

The issue: Dunning only had time for a handful of warmup pitches in the bullpen because Newman, who pitched the top-half of the ninth, retired the Rangers on four pitches.

His slow-moving meatballs were, evidently, too irresistible for the Texas hitters. Evan Carter popped out on a 43.5 mph pitch, Jake Burger grounded out on a 42.9 mph pitch and Alejandro Osuna popped out on a 41.8 mph pitch. The speedy frame forced the Rangers to use left-hander Jacob Latz for the first batter of the ninth inning to give Dunning more time.

“We were trying to get Osuna to call timeout and take a pitch” Bochy said with a laugh. “He went up there, he didn’t have a hit, so I’m sure he wanted to swing. He couldn’t hear us.”

Does anyone need a break more than these guys?

So, speaking of position player pitchers, they’re designed to let teams give their bullpens a rest during blowout games.

The Rangers can at least relate to that.

Their bullpen has thrown the fifth-most innings (147 2/3) among AL relief staffs since June 1 and had to eat 40 2/3 innings since the start of July alone. It didn’t impact their production (their 2.86 ERA since the start of June is the best in baseball) but it did impact their availability (see: Luke Jackson in a high-leverage position Wednesday against the Angels and Robert Garcia’s multiple innings Saturday against the Astros).

Seven extra inning games in a 18-contest span to finish the first half will do that.

They’ll pray for regulation once play resumes Friday vs. the Tigers.

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