How Do the Texas Rangers Align Their Aces for a Potential Wild Card Series?
Reminiscent of ’23, the Texas Rangers have left their playoff fate to the final week of the regular season. From here, it’s all hands on deck to accomplish one objective: Reach the postseason.
There is a secondary objective, as well: To position themselves to win in the postseason.
If they make it, they would likely be a three or six seed and play in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. The Wild Card round begins next Tuesday, and will be played in a best-of-three format.
If Texas aims to advance beyond the Wild Card Series, they’ll want their best starting pitchers fully available. That means lining up Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi to pitch games 1 and 2.
The Rangers don’t have any probable starters listed beyond tonight’s matchup against the New York Mets, in which Mackenzie Gore is set to take the mound. deGrom last pitched Sunday, so his next start would come Friday in Minnesota — the third-to-last game of the regular season. That would put him on normal four days’ rest and line him up to start Game 2 of the Wild Card Series on Wednesday.
Eovaldi’s situation is not quite as linear. The 2023 postseason hero has yet to make a start since returning from the IL eight games ago. He’s appeared in relief three times and accumulated 7 2/3 innings. He last pitched Saturday, just one inning.
The Rangers could continue to leverage him as a reliever, a role he’s performed brilliantly as of late, entering games at critical junctures and helping secure wins. Though, assuming he’s ready to take on a starter’s workload, he’ll most likely get back to starting this week — but at what point this week?
If Eovaldi requires four days’ rest between starts, he’d have to get the nod by Thursday to be ready to pitch again in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series. That doesn’t necessarily mean he can’t pitch in relief before then, but the Rangers would need to carefully manage his workload if they want him ready to start Game 1.
deGrom on Friday and Eovaldi on Thursday. That leaves four regular season games for Gore, Kumar Rocker, and Cody Bradford to own their starts and avoid unscheduled heroism from the two aces.
The Rangers will also have to account for the absence of Cal Quantrill, who was placed on the 60-day injured list with a right lat strain. He won’t be eligible to return for the postseason. That puts even more importance on getting deGrom and Eovaldi properly lined up for October.
A straightforward final six games, going according to plan, sounds nice. In reality, they may be anything but. If the prior 156 games are any indication, the Rangers may be fighting for a playoff berth during game 162.
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