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The Texas Rangers' hopes to make the 2024 postseason have all but vanished. They enter Monday with a 60-71 record, which has them 12.5 games back of a wild card spot in the American League standings — a near-impossible hole to climb out of with 31 games remaining on their season. Fangraphs has their playoff odds at the moment at 0.2 percent, fittingly reflecting where they stand in the league's totem pole. Nonetheless, Rangers fans may get some additional reason to tune in towards the end of the season even as they reflect upon a lost season.
During a guest appearance on MLB Network Radio on Sunday, Rangers general manager Chris Young revealed that veteran starting pitcher Jacob deGrom, who has missed the entirety of the 2024 season to this point, is inching ever so closely to a return to the big leagues after a prolonged stint on the injured list amid his recovery from Tommy John surgery.
“He’s not far from rejoining the major league team. We’ll see how the next outing goes [at Triple-A] and map out a responsible way for him to pitch through September to get his feet wet back in the major leagues and be strong and ready to go for 2025,” Young said, per Jon Morosi of MLB Network.
With only 31 games left in the Rangers' season, perhaps Jacob deGrom could make up to five or six starts to end the year and get him back to game speed after last pitching on April 28, 2023. That should at least give Texas an idea of how much gas deGrom has left in the tank after injuries have ravaged him hard over the past three seasons.
deGrom is 36 years of age, and injury woes coupled with age-related decline does not bode well for his future prospects. Regardless, the veteran has such a long track record of elite performance on the mound that his return should still turn some heads, even for Rangers fans who have checked out of the season following a disappointing World Series defense.
Jacob deGrom is on his way back for the Rangers
With Jacob deGrom set to return sometime in September, 16 months will have passed since he last suited up for the Rangers after signing a huge five-year, $185 million contract in December 2022. But even in his limited action thus far in a Rangers uniform, he still looked like the deGrom of old. Last season, in six starts, he pitched to the tune of a 2.67 ERA, with his peripherals suggesting that he deserves an even better mark than what he had accomplished.
The Rangers starter has made mincemeat of the opposition whenever he's healthy; since the start of the decade, he has put up a 2.12 ERA in 254.2 innings of work across 44 starts — elite numbers. His fastball velocity has consistently ranked among the best marks for starting pitchers. But his body, more often than not, has not held up and allowed him to suit up more often.
In 2021, while deGrom was in the middle of one of the greatest seasons in pitching history, he experienced forearm tightness that halted his campaign. In 2022, he was limited to 12 starts; his season began in August after he sustained a shoulder injury in Spring Training. And then last year, he underwent Tommy John surgery — the second of his career.
The variety of injuries across his arm is a major concern. But one thing's for sure, whenever deGrom is on the mound, good things happen. And for a Rangers team that's looking to sell a redemption story for 2025, every bit of hope they can get, they will take.