Health Is Key For The Texas Rangers In 2023
Today, one of our authors highlights a key characteristic the Texas Rangers need to display this season if they want to be competitive - staying healthy.
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Pregame Pepper - Rangers Rampage
Leading Off
Health is Key for the Texas Rangers in 2023
By Ben Dieter
I know it goes without being said, but health will make or break the 2023 Texas Rangers. As the world knows, the team spent an ungodly amount of money over the past two offseasons.
The day before the Major League Baseball lockout in 2021, the Rangers spent $583 million on Corey Seager (10 years, $325 million), Marcus Semien (7 years, $175 million), and Jon Gray (4 years, $56 million). They spent over half-a-billion dollars in one day.
Fast forward to 2023 and the Texas Rangers signed Jacob deGrom (5 years, $185 million), Andrew Heaney (2 years, $25 million), Nathan Eovaldi (2 years, $34 million), Jake Odorizzi (1 year, $12.5 million) and re-signed Martin Perez ( 1 year, $19.65 million).
That is a lot of cash, to say the least. The Rangers have been the biggest spenders over the past two seasons.
Let’s look at the pitcher signings from the 2022 off-season. deGrom has only thrown 156.1 innings over the past two seasons. He has been dealing with an injury. He had a minor setback at the beginning of camp in 2023. Most people will tell you that deGrom is one of the best pitchers in the game: when healthy.
deGrom has not been healthy for the past two seasons. The Rangers are betting that he will be in 2023 and beyond. Any glowing projections for the 2023 Rangers fade away if deGrom lands on the injured list (IL) for any significant amount of time.
Eovaldi started 20 games and threw 109.1 innings in 2022. That means he averaged 5.2 innings per start. If the Rangers are to be successful, he needs to make the majority of his 32 starts in 2023.
Heaney threw 202.1 innings from 2021 to 2022. He only tossed 72.2 in 2022.
If you don’t see a pattern here, let me explain. Each one of the pitchers mentioned so far has spent time on the IL over the past two seasons.
Further, Gray made 24 starts and pitched 127.1 innings in 2022 for the Rangers. He went on the IL 3 separate times during the season.
Odorizzi is already on the IL to start the season. The Rangers did not project him to be a starter, but it is still discouraging to see.
The Texas Rangers (on paper) have one of the best rotations in the American League. We can argue that all day, but by the numbers, it is top tier. Their cumulative ERA from 2022 was 3.33.
The problem is they only threw 570 innings. That averages out to around only 114 innings per pitcher.
The Texas Rangers had a very prolific offense in 2022. They scored 4.36 runs per game on average. If you’ve paid attention to spring training this season, several players including Corey Seager had great springs at the plate.
The offense is primed to be productive, as is the starting pitching. Any baseball fan knows that it can all derail at any moment because of injury. Trips to the IL can cause the bullpen, which is not as strong as the starters for the Rangers, to be overworked and that lowers performance.
Everything snowballs from there. It can go south quickly.
Can the Rangers win the American League West with perfect health in 2023? I still have my doubts, even if everyone stays healthy. I just don’t think they are quite there yet.
The Astros are still really good. The Mariners aren’t going anywhere and the Angels could be a threat.
With any key injury to the starting rotation, their chances go from slim to none. See 2020-2022. The era of the Texas Rangers being irrelevant is coming to an end. A healthy Rangers team is going to be a winning Rangers team. We are about to find out if that will be the case.
Ben Dieter has been writing and podcasting about the Texas Rangers since 2009. You can find his work at therangerreport.com and dalsportsnation.com.