{"id":600898,"date":"2026-03-02T02:42:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T02:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/600898\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T02:42:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T02:42:26","slug":"young-rangers-reliever-preparing-for-live-bullpens-after-shoulder-injury-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/600898\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Rangers Reliever Preparing for Live Bullpens After Shoulder Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past two weeks Texas Rangers<\/a> reliever Marc Church has watched his teammates participate in spring training workouts and games. On Tuesday, that changes.<\/p>\n

Rangers manager Skip Schumaker<\/a> said on Sunday that Church will participate in his first bullpen session in Surprise, Ariz., on Tuesday, which will be followed by another bullpen session on Friday. The right-hander is recovering from a teres major strain. The Dallas Morning News’<\/a> Shawn McFarland posted the update on X (formerly Twitter).<\/p>\n

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Former Texas right-hander Max Scherzer<\/a> had a similar injury in September of 2023 as he strained his right teres major muscle in a game against the Toronto Blue Jays. He was initially ruled out of the playoffs but returned to pitch in both the American League Championship Series and the World Series.<\/p>\n

The teres major is a thick muscle in the shoulder that stabilizes the joint.<\/p>\n

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Marc Church’s Path Back to Majors\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Rangers relief pitcher Marc Church. | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Church broke spring training with the Rangers last year with the Rangers and pitched five games in relief before he was optioned back to Triple-A Round Rock. He was not involved in a decision and had a 3.86 ERA. He struck out five and walked six in 4.2 innings.<\/p>\n

He spent the rest of the season at Round Rock, but he didn’t pitch much. He was placed on the injured list on April 22 and missed a month of action. He went back on the IL in June and didn’t return until a rehab assignment with High-A Hub City in September. He went 0-1 with a 9.82 ERA in eight games, with 10 strikeouts and nine walks in 7.1 innings.<\/p>\n

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With the slow ramp-up, Church is unlikely to break camp with the Rangers for opening day. But, Texas is hopeful that the 24-year-old can recover his standing as one of the most promising young pitchers in the organization.<\/p>\n

Another shoulder injury limited him to 17 games for Round Rock in 2024, but he made his MLB debut the final weekend of the season. With the Express he went 1-1 with a 3.22 ERA in 17 games, with four holds and one save in three chances. He struck out 24 and walked seven in 22.1 innings.<\/p>\n

That built off a breakthrough season in 2023 when he pitched for Round Rock and Double-A Frisco. He combined to go 9-4 with a 3.63 ERA in 43 games, with two starts. He had three holds and two saves in three chances. He struck out 79 and walked 38 in 62 innings.<\/p>\n

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Texas drafted Church out of North Atlanta High School in Atlanta, Ga., in the 18th round of the 2019 MLB draft, but he didn’t make his professional debut until 2021.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on www.si.com\/mlb\/rangers\/onsi as Young Rangers Reliever Preparing for Live Bullpens After Shoulder Injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the past two weeks Texas Rangers reliever Marc Church has watched his teammates participate in spring training…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2393],"tags":[2428,191,5,20332,381,4,149,3384,5817,78271,1567,69,3240,24916,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-600898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-american-league-championship-series","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-marc-church","12":"tag-max-scherzer","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-rangers","15":"tag-round-rock","16":"tag-shoulder-injury","17":"tag-teres-major","18":"tag-texas","19":"tag-texas-rangers","20":"tag-texasrangers","21":"tag-the-dallas-morning-news","22":"tag-toronto-blue-jays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116157281614917562","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600898","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=600898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}