The Texas Rangers begin their 2025 journey with a healthy Jacob deGrom leading a starting rotation filled with high-upside arms.
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers, in trudging through a disappointing 2024 season, experienced some of their worst-case scenarios when it came to their starting rotation.
The 2023 rotation that eventually produced a World Series championship was able to overcome catastrophic moments such as Jacob deGrom’s season-ending injury thanks to some overperforming depth pieces.
In 2024, that wasn’t always the case as Texas weathered a slew of injuries from a risk-heavy rotation. By the end of the season, a brief three-start return to action by deGrom at the tail end of September proved a guiding light for what can be a much improved starting staff, if injury luck is on their side.
As we enter 2025, the rotation to start the season looks highly impressive, but the true test of strength is going to lie in the depth that inevitably will need to act as fortification for a staff that has been replete with trips to the injured list in recent seasons.
2024 Opening Day starting rotation: Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, Andrew Heaney, Dane Dunning, Cody Bradford
2025 projected Opening Day starting rotation: Nathan Eovaldi, Jacob deGrom, Jon Gray, Tyler Mahle, Cody Bradford
The Rangers gambled and lost in 2024. Texas’ big-ticket signing that offseason was Tyler Mahle after deGrom the winter before him. Both were recovering from Tommy John surgery and wouldn’t be ready until mid-year at the latest. Eventually, Texas got all of six starts from Mahle and deGrom.
Future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer was supposed to be entering his first full season with the Rangers after he was acquired to help Texas win the 2023 World Series, but he also missed much of the season with various ailments while making just nine starts all year. The supposed good news, though, was that many of the pieces that were solid from 2023 were ready and healthy for the start of the season.
The game plan? Survive with what was there until the reinforcements came along. With the Rangers’ highly-touted offense projected to mash their way to victories, it seemed like a decent strategy.
Unfortunately for Texas, the offense slumped and also suffered various injuries which put a strain on the depth of the pitching staff. Without the bats to rely on, much of the flaws and holes in the Rangers’ pitching staff came to light. It’s perhaps doable to hide your No. 6 and 7 starters in the rotation if the offense is scoring at a league-leading pace. When they aren’t pushing runs across, the mistakes from the staff become more evident.
Eovaldi was the major holdover from 2023 who continued his success in 2024, going on to pitch to a 3.80 ERA with 166 strikeouts and 42 walks. Eovaldi continued to be the lynchpin holding the rotation together. Even though the Texas native hit the injured list himself a couple of times, he actually pitched in more games and threw more innings than he had for Texas in 2023.
Gray, meanwhile, injury-prone throughout his career, held up well through the first half, turning in an impressive first two months of the season that put him in line as a potential All-Star candidate before careening in a hard way in June and ultimately landing on the injured list to end his season.
Dane Dunning, who was named the team’s Pitcher of the Year in 2023 as deGrom’s replacement in the rotation, had a poor year and couldn’t hold his spot. Eventually Dunning was relegated to the bullpen where he will likely start the year as a swingman who can join the rotation for spot starts or be the next man up when an injury occurs.
Cody Bradford parlayed his successful stint as a reliever as a rookie in 2023 into a rotation spot in 2024 but was unfortunately hindered by a stress fracture in his rib two weeks into the season, missing nearly the entire year. When he did take the mound, however, Bradford enjoyed success, which makes him a prime candidate to earn a spot in the rotation to start the year.
Andrew Heaney ended up being the only Rangers hurler from the Opening Day rotation who made it through the year unscathed health-wise. A free agent, Heaney finished the year first in starts for Texas in 2024 and second on the team in innings pitched.
After losing Heaney and Scherzer to free agency, the Rangers had several question marks in their rotation, especially with Eovaldi also testing the market as a free agent after declining his option to stay with Texas.
With as much inconsistency and as many injuries as the rotation had faced in 2024, it was important to retain at least one reliable piece to build around. That made bringing back Eovaldi priority No. 1 of the offseason. Texas was able to accomplish that at the Winter Meetings in Dallas, with the Rangers signing the World Series hero right-hander to a three-year, $75 million contract that will likely span the remainder of his career.
Following the signing of Eovaldi, Texas is relying heavily on bounce-back seasons from deGrom and Mahle as they enter their first full offseason after major arm surgery. deGrom is a two-time CY Young winner from his time with the New York Mets, and the right-hander held a claim as potentially the best pitcher in baseball during his best years. Injuries have robbed him of those best years of late, but when he’s on, he’s appointment viewing.
Mahle, meanwhile, has a career 4.32 ERA in eight seasons in the big leagues but offers an intriguingly high strikeout rate when he’s able to take the mound.
Gray is a known factor at this point, where as long as his health holds up, he’s a solid starter. The fact that his health rarely holds up could make Gray an eventual factor in the bullpen as a late-innings arm.
Bradford, after an injury-delaying sophomore year, has the potential to be a rarity as a homegrown starter who takes hold of a rotation spot, but the team will have to monitor his innings and hope he continues to develop at the big league level. With his rib injury figured out, Bradford will get the opportunity to build on a year in which he pitched to a 3.54 ERA in 13 starts.
Retaining Eovaldi and getting full, healthy offseasons from deGrom, Mahle and Bradford means that the Rangers can keep their depth pieces where they need to be – as depth, at least to start the year.
While the debuts of Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker were exciting to see last season, neither are likely ready to take on the full brunt of a Major League season. While they will be in competition for jobs, if their ultimate goal and end game is to be starting pitchers, they need to continue to mature in the minor leagues with Rocker likely ahead of Leiter in the pecking order at this point.
There will be some competition at spring training. Dunning and non-roster invitee Adrian Houser are among the starters who will get a look for a rotation bid at Surprise. RHP Alejandro Rosario is the other top starting pitching prospect behind Rocker and Leiter, but he will likely start the year at Double-A Frisco potentially becoming an option later in the season.
As the year rolls on, their depth and durability will be tested. For the Rangers, the hope is that they win the gamble this year.
Do you think the Rangers will have better luck with their starting pitching health in 2025? Share your thoughts with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB