{"id":579015,"date":"2026-02-18T09:39:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/579015\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T09:39:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:39:55","slug":"rangers-ace-jacob-degrom-cracks-espns-list-of-mlbs-top-pitchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/579015\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers\u2019 ace Jacob deGrom cracks ESPN\u2019s list of MLB\u2019s top pitchers"},"content":{"rendered":"

On paper it looks like the Texas Rangers are going to be all about pitching<\/a> in 2026.<\/p>\n

If you ask ESPN\u2019s Buster Olney, they\u2019re setting out on the season with one of the league\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

The longtime baseball analyst is dropping his annual rankings of MLB\u2019s best players by position<\/a>, starting with the best starting pitchers in baseball.<\/p>\n

Rangers\u2019 37-year-old ace Jacob deGrom<\/a> comes in at No. 10 on the list, with Olney showering praise on what he calls a future Hall of Famer.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDeGrom held hitters to a .196 average in 30 starts last season, his best performance in years,\u201d Olney writes. \u201cHis eventual election into the Hall of Fame now seems to be a lock, considering the recent trend in which voters reward candidates for peak performance. His career ERA+ is at 151, sixth all time, behind Clayton Kershaw and Pedro Martinez, who are tied at 154.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps more important than his stellar stats last season for the Rangers was deGrom\u2019s health, as he made more starts and pitched more innings in 2025 than he had in his previous five seasons.<\/p>\n

A healthy deGrom and a healthy Nathan Eovaldi, who\u2019s returning from end-of-season surgery last year, would represent one of the best 1-2 punches at the top of any rotation in baseball, and Texas\u2019 No. 3 in MacKenzie Gore would only add to that<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DeGrom may be past his days of Tier 1 MLB pitching like Nos. 1 and 2 on Olney\u2019s list, Detroit\u2019s Tarik Slubal and Pittsburgh\u2019s Paul Skenes, but he\u2019s still considered one of the league\u2019s best, capable of anchoring what the Rangers hope will be a playoff-bound rotation.<\/p>\n

Click here to see Olney\u2019s full top 10.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Rangers<\/a>Watch: Rangers insiders talk spring training storylines, including Kumar Rocker\u2019s growth<\/a><\/p>\n

Evan Grant and Shawn McFarland are on site at spring training bringing you the latest from Surprise, Ariz.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>Rangers\u2019 new-look catching tandem of Higashioka, Jansen welcoming whatever\u2019s asked of them<\/a><\/p>\n

Things will look a bit different behind the plate in Texas this season with the addition of Danny Jansen and exit of Jonah Heim.<\/p>\n

\"Kansas<\/a>Arrival of ABS challenge system creates new puzzle for Texas Rangers, Skip Schumaker<\/a><\/p>\n

One key part of spring training will be experimenting with the new system and how teams want to implement it once the games count.<\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On paper it looks like the Texas Rangers are going to be all about pitching in 2026. If…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,403,4,149,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-579015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-jacob-degrom","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-rangers","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-rangers","14":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116090978160986265","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}