ARLINGTON – As time has waned and playoff odds have dimmed, the Rangers could look to their surprisingly superb starting pitching and counter with: “As long as the starting pitching holds up, there’s always a chance.”
About that. Perhaps you were too busy Tuesday searching for where Travis and Taylor will be registered, but, in case you missed the second-biggest sports headline of Tuesday, the Rangers will “likely” be without Nathan Eovaldi for the rest of the regular season. A strained rotator cuff will send him to the injured list. And, for all intents and purposes, it sends the last of the club’s dwindling playoff hopes up in smoke.
In making the announcement, Chris Young wouldn’t rule out the possibility that, if the Rangers made the postseason, maybe Eovaldi could return. He said this with a straight, but somber face. But to review: Eovaldi was chasing one of the five lowest ERAs since baseball added the DH in 1973, the Rangers rotation leads baseball in ERA … and they still entered Tuesday below .500 and in the playoff in concept, but not really reality.
Related:Texas Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi likely done for season with rotator cuff strain
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“This is a really, really tough blow,” manager Bruce Bochy said while slowly shaking his head before the Rangers game with the Los Angeles Angels. “There’s no getting around it when you lose somebody like Nate. He means so much, not just to the pitching staff, but to the team. I feel horrible for him with the year he was having. I can’t think of a pitcher on any of my teams that has had the year he’s had; the numbers are just incredible.”
Before we get to the performance numbers, let’s update the triage numbers. When Eovaldi officially goes on the IL Wednesday, it will be the seventh IL placement in a 10-day span. Four of those are expected to be season-ending injuries. In addition to Eovaldi, Marcus Semien broke a bone in his foot, Evan Carter broke a bone in his wrist and Jon Gray was diagnosed with arterial Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. Young said he’s “never seen a week like this.”
The performance numbers: Eovaldi’s bid to be the first Cy Young Award winner in Rangers history centered around his ERA, which fell to 1.73 after he allowed Cleveland a run on Friday in what now looks like his last start of the season. He got there with amazing consistency, allowing one or no runs in 15 of his 22 starts. He had struck out 129 in 130 innings, but more impressively had walked just 21 and allowed 10 homers. Detroit’s Tarik Skubal was the favorite to win a second straight Cy Young, but Eovaldi was thick in the conversation.
He woke up over the weekend with what he felt was typical late-season soreness. It was still sore when he started to play catch on Sunday and got crankier as he moved into a bullpen. Eovaldi is more than willing to pitch with some soreness, but even he noted it was unusual and persistent. He underwent an MRI Monday with everyone expecting it was some typical late season shoulder fatigue.
The MRI showed something more significant – a strain. Not as severe of a strain as the one that sent Tyler Mahle to the IL in June, but it’s about to be September and Mahle’s not back yet. The injury doesn’t require surgery, but does require rest. There are 28 games and less than five weeks remaining in the season. Maybe enough rest time, but not nearly enough to get ready to pitch again.
The Rangers aren’t sure how they’ll replace him for the remainder of the year. Kumar Rocker, who hasn’t pitched since Aug. 7 while working through some items in his delivery, apparently is not an option for Wednesday’s game, which was to be Eovaldi’s next start. Maybe old friend Andrew Heaney, DFA’d by Pittsburgh on Tuesday is a possibility. Young said the Rangers would consider “external options,” too.
“If we’re in the postseason, maybe you try to pitch through it,” Eovaldi said. “But it needs time to recover. You just have to give the body time to heal. And, unfortunately, given the time we have left, it’s just tough.
“I want to be able to go out there and take the ball and I take a lot of pride in going out there every fifth day. To not be able to do that again, to have the outcome we have now, that’s really tough for me.”
It is important to put into context what Eovaldi has meant to the Rangers. In short, he’s the difference between a winning team and a losing. Might have been the difference in 2023 between winning the World Series and anything else, too. The Rangers are 15-7 in his starts this season and were a losing team in starts by all others.
Over his three seasons, they are 47-29 (.644) when he starts, 187-194 (.490) when he doesn’t. He has been instrumental in the progress Jack Leiter has made in his first full season, as a mentor, for sure, but also as an example. They can still talk about starts, but Leiter won’t have the visual of watching and learning. It’s worth noting that Leiter has immediately followed Leiter in the rotation six times this season. Kid has a 1.86 ERA in those starts. He’s a visual learner. And, yeah, you can draw a pretty straight line from Eovaldi’s ERA to the entire rotation’s performance. They are connected.
“He’s second to none as a teammate,” Leiter said. “I’ve learned a ton from watching him. Nothing in his leadership is going to change. But it just sucks that he’s not going to be out there. I’ve learned a lot from watching him. He’s having one of the greatest seasons of all-time. Just not fun. It sucks. Hopefully, we can [rise to the occasion] for him.”
To do it, the Rangers are going to have to rally from 5 ½ games back in the wild card race with the three teams above them all holding head-to-head tiebreakers. Their playoff chances stood at 6.7% entering Tuesday, the lowest they’ve been all season.
“The way I try to look at it, it’s just going to make the story that much better,” Bochy said.
He was trying to muster some optimism. It was hard to come by Tuesday.
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