Rangers to pay out Nathan Eovaldi’s All-Star bonus despite lacking official recognition

The Rangers feel Nathan Eovaldi was an All-Star, despite players and MLB apparently deeming differently.

They felt it strongly enough to put their money where their feelings were. As a result, the club will pay Eovaldi’s $100,000 All-Star incentive bonus as a reward for his first-half performance, a person with direct knowledge of the club’s plans told The Dallas Morning News. ESPN’s Jeff Passan first tweeted the Rangers plans.

Eovaldi, 35, had a 1.58 ERA in 91 innings in the first half, which would have led the majors, but he fell six innings shy of qualifying after missing a month on the IL. MLB rules dictate that a pitcher must average one inning per team games played to qualify for the league leaders. The Rangers have played 97.

But Eovaldi also ranked fifth in the AL in pitching WAR, according to Fangraphs at 3.0. He would have ranked second in the majors strikeout-to-walk rate (6.71) and third in fewest homers allowed per nine innings (0.49).

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Eovaldi missed a month with an arm issue and returned in late June. It was about that time that players had to vote for pitchers and that may have impacted where he fell in the voting. In that first start back, he was on a very limited pitch count, essentially doing his rehab in the majors and allowed three runs in three innings.

Since then, in three July starts, he’s allowed one run in 18 ⅔ innings with 19 strikeouts and just two walks.

Eovaldi, whose annual average salary in the three-year deal he signed before the season is $25 million, has allowed zero or one run in 11 of his 16 starts this season. He has not allowed more than three runs in any of his starts.

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