Concern about Jacob deGrom is right on schedule at Texas Rangers camp
SURPRISE, Ariz. — The early days of Jacob deGrom’s Texas Rangers tenure have been, in many ways, much like his last days with the New York Mets.
There was plenty of attention, even here behind Surprise Stadium, a world away from the harsh New York spotlight. Fans carried shiny new deGrom jerseys and hurried around the back fields, hoping he would sign one. Onlookers moved as he moved, even just to stand nearby.
And there was an injury — or discomfort or whatever he wants to call it — which the Rangers said deGrom would pitch through if it mattered, the kind of blip that doesn’t seem like a big deal until you consider the context. Injury after injury limited the 34-year-old to 15 or fewer starts in each of his last three seasons with the Mets. Many of those injuries began as no big deal but ended as the latest in a long line of ailments that kept one of the most dominant right-handers of his generation off the field in his prime.
This past week, deGrom pushed back a scheduled Wednesday bullpen session because of soreness in his side. On Sunday, he threw for the first time since. He played catch from something less than 90 feet. He simulated his delivery on flat ground.
When Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux asked him how he felt afterward, deGrom appeared to say “good” and nodded confidently. But he did not stick around for pitchers’ fielding practice with his colleagues. As they settled in to practice backing up bases, he hopped on a golf cart with a staffer and sped back to the clubhouse.
“That’s just part of getting back ready to throw. You don’t go right back into it when you’ve taken a few days off,” Rangers Manager Bruce Bochy said. “You’ll see him on the mound real soon.”
After the workout, deGrom reported through a member of the Rangers’ media relations staff that he had no issues during his brief throwing session and that he plans to throw again Monday. Exactly what form that will take — another game of catch, a full bullpen session or something else — the Rangers would not specify. As the Mets learned all too well, injured players cannot appear to be behind schedule unless the public knows the schedule.
Still, deGrom is not exactly behind schedule because it is hard to be both throwing at all and behind schedule this early in spring training. In fact, Rangers General Manager Chris Young said Saturday that the righty arrived at camp ahead of schedule, having thrown off the mound six times already. And though smoke often signals fire with deGrom, the Rangers can’t be blamed for being ultracautious with the man to whom they committed $185 million over the next five seasons. Among starting pitchers, only Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander have signed deals worth more per season than deGrom’s $37 million. Those two future Hall of Famers, of course, now pitch for the same team — deGrom’s old one.
The Rangers do not have the luxury of a second transcendent pitching talent. They do have an overhauled rotation that is a safe bet to improve on the 2022 group’s 4.63 ERA, which was the sixth worst in baseball. Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney join Martín Pérez and Jon Gray behind deGrom, though outside of Pérez, those players are not exactly bastions of durability, either. Neither Eovaldi, Heaney nor Gray threw even 130 innings last season.
Pérez, who threw 196⅓ and had a 2.89 ERA, plans to represent Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic; he threw simulated at-bats to hitters this past week. As he and deGrom finished their games of catch Sunday, a Rangers coach hollered in Pérez’s direction, “If you want to throw 200 innings this year, you should put the ball down!”
The warning was a joke, and Pérez didn’t heed it. But fragility is the reality of even the most promising starting rotation. For Texas, which is hoping to climb the American League West standings and challenge the World Series champion Houston Astros and the exciting Seattle Mariners near the top, a healthy rotation will be important. A healthy deGrom would be pivotal.
So this is the life they will live for now, spending spring training mornings with eyes locked on deGrom, hoping to see the electric stuff that makes him so dominant when he is right but wondering about every grimace, wince or hesitation. With his history, paranoia is as inevitable as his stuff is unhittable.
