MINNEAPOLIS, MN – SEPTEMBER 25: Jacob deGrom #48 of the Texas Rangers looks on during the game between the Texas Rangers and the Minnesota Twins at Target Field on Friday, September 25, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Michael Turner/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Michael Turner/MLB Photos via Getty Images
MINNEAPOLIS — It was time, Skip Schumaker said Friday, for the Rangers’ “dudes to be dudes,” and, make no mistake, he was looking figuratively at Jacob deGrom when he said it. There was a series to be won and a playoff berth to be clinched and that is why the Rangers brought deGrom to Texas in the first place.
Instead, the dude laid a dud.
And an epic one at that.
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In a 10-2 thumping by Minnesota, a team with nothing to play for except its own pride, deGrom sucked the life out of an early lead with a six-run, second-inning meltdown that started with a walk and got worse by the minute. When his night was over two innings — and two runs — later, you had to wonder if this would be the last vision of him in a Rangers uniform.
It was a disastrous night for the Rangers all around. Josh Jung was lost in the first to another fastball off his right hand, three inches higher than where he suffered a fractured wrist after being hit by a fastball four games into the 2024 season. The defense got caught flat-footed on a safety squeeze in the decisive second. The offense, which includes its own share of duds, er, dudes, disappeared after the second inning.
The second inning, though, may have been where this Rangers season finally went to die. Of course, this sounds somewhat repetitive. There have a handful of other times the Rangers looked dead, only for Houston to stumble in lockstep, too. Despite the shock of Jung’s first-inning injury, the Rangers had given deGrom a lead and he looked sharp in an 11-pitch first inning. Then everything went haywire.
He walked Josh Bell. He gave up three rapid-fire, soft-ish singles that erased the lead. Then came the bunt where Jake Burger and Nicky Lopez both ended up in the wrong place and deGrom ended up just holding the ball while the go-ahead run scored. A triple followed. And a run-scoring wild pitch. When the 35-pitch inning was over, deGrom’s walk across the diamond was excruciatingly slow.
Texas Rangers pitcher Jacob Degrom reacts during the second inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)
Ellen Schmidt/AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt
“I don’t really know what to say,” deGrom said. “It got out of hand and I couldn’t get it back under control. It’s embarrassing. I was terrible. I didn’t make the pitches when I needed to.
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“And after the inning, I said to myself that’s got to be it. I put up a zero and then another walk and they end up with more runs. So just a horrible job by me.”
All of which may bring the Rangers a bit closer to the end of the season and this roster construct. All the money spent on deGrom, who is still owed $37 million for 2027, and Corey Seager and Nathan Eovaldi and on and on and on has produced one winning season in the five years since Ray Davis opened his since-shuttered wallet. They’ve averaged $192 million in payroll since 2022 and, when this season is finally done, they will have averaged no more than 79 wins in that time. The World Series run was great. It’s a distant memory now.
Even if the Rangers rebound for the weekend and somehow become the first team to win a division with a non-winning record, changes are a coming.
The Rangers already tried to trade deGrom once this summer and he politely declined. When the inevitable roster remake begins after the season, they may perhaps try to be more persuasive.
Since he made that declaration that he believed in this Rangers team too much to desert it as a mercenary, he’s looked every bit of his 38 years. He left starts due to arm fatigue and a groin injury that he’s been trying to manage ever since. He allowed eight runs twice. His ERA for the 10 starts since he decided to stay, and Joc Pederson dubbed him “The General,” is 4.77. Nothing to salute at.
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The Rangers have burned through their bullpen over the last 10 games in which no starter has gotten through six innings. It’s just the fifth time since the Rangers came to Arlington in 1972 they’ve gone at least 10 consecutive starts without somebody pitching six. It doesn’t happen often, even for this organization. And in this stretch, deGrom is the only guy to have at least three starts. They needed their ace to be an ace in Game 160. He couldn’t.
After the game, Schumaker stopped by deGrom’s locker and pulled up a seat for a conversation with a clearly frustrated pitcher. The manager did more listening than talking. It was an unusual sight to see the manager seated at a player’s locker, but there are still two games left in this season and, despite losing four of their last five, the Rangers still aren’t eliminated.
Impossible as it sounds, there still might be a chance for deGrom to pitch at least once more. And at home. In his first playoff start as a Ranger and just his second in the last decade.
“Listen, I would always bet on Jacob,” Schumaker said, maybe trying to manifest miracles. “I’d want him in Game 1 of a series. I still believe in Jacob deGrom.”
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If he is to get a chance to justify that belief, it’s going to be up to someone else. Otherwise, Friday might have been the last we see of deGrom the Ranger.