Fans knew prior to the move to get Mackenzie Gore that this Texas Rangers rotation was among the best in Major League Baseball and while most agree, it still feels they might be a bit underrated coming into the 2026 season.

In this MLB.com article of the best 1-2 pitching duos in baseball, the combo of Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi/Gore as the 8th-best. While to be among the top 10 in MLB, it feels that eight is a bit low.

Top of Rangers’ rotation among top 10 in baseball

Now, when you dive deeper into why this team is sitting at No. 8 in baseball, it was all determined by the projected combined WAR among the team’s top arms.

The combo of Eovaldi and Gore are projected to finish with a 2.9 WAR each in 2026 with deGrom making up for the remainder of the trios 6.6 combined WAR next year. It would be a steep drop for Eovaldi, who finished with a 4.3 WAR despite only starting 22 games.

In those games, the 35-year-old Alvin, Texas native was on track for a Cy Young finalists year with an 11-3 record, 1.73 ERA, 129 strikeouts, 21 walks and a 0.85 WHIP in 130 innings of work. He even recorded a Greg Maddux complete game shutout in an April win over the Reds.

As for deGrom, his 2025 was one of the best in his career since the 2019 Cy Young year. After years of dealing with injuries and returning from Tommy John Surgery in his first contract year with the Rangers, the 37-year-old right-hander won the AL Comeback Player of the Year Award.

Then Gore, he still has a lot of learning to go. He hasn’t been the third overall pick team’s expected him to be which has led to him being traded three times. However, the veteran duo of deGrom and Eovaldi can help transform Gore into an ace.

Looking at the duos ahead, you can’t argue against Taik Skubal/Framber Valdez, Garrett Crochet/Sonny Gray and Cristopher Sanchez/Jesus Luzardo as a top three. After that it get’s a little murky and Texas could easily find themselves sneaking into the top five.

MLB seems to think so as well, because starting with the Braves duo of Chris Sales/Spencer Scwellenbach (7.2 WAR) to the end of the list with the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamaoto and Blake Snell (6.5 WAR), they are only separated by 0.7 WAR.