deGrom to start season at back of Rangers' rotation: 'He’s going as planned'

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The Rangers' ace may not start on Opening Day.

But there are no alarm bells just yet. This appears to be according to plan for the Rangers. According to manager Bruce Bochy, Texas is planning to have Jacob deGrom -- who signed a five-year, $185 million deal with the club ahead of the 2023 season -- pitch at the back end of the rotation to open the season. Joel Sherman of the New York Post originally reported it Monday morning.

The Rangers have been moving deGrom along slowly in his first spring post-Tommy John surgery. He threw 25 pitches in his first live batting practice session of the spring on March 1. He faced Joc Pederson and Kevin Pillar, throwing 14 of his pitches for strikes.

At the time, Bochy said deGrom looked like himself and the coaching staff was confident he would be able to build up his innings for the start of the regular season. That confidence hasn’t appeared to waver, but the Rangers are focused on keeping their ace healthy.

“That’s just how it’s shaping up,” Bochy told reporters on Monday. “We decided to go ahead and give him the back end of the rotation. He's gonna get around four starts here [in Arizona], we’ll get him up to around five innings and he’ll slot in the back end.”

deGrom is scheduled to make his Cactus League debut on Friday against the Rockies in Scottsdale. When looking at the regular-season schedule, he will either make his first appearance on March 30 against the Red Sox to close out the season-opening series, or against the Reds on March 31 to begin the Rangers' first road trip. Texas' schedule also offers some flexibility, with the team having an off-day in each of the first four weeks of April.

The ace underwent his second Tommy John surgery in June 2023, just six starts into his Texas tenure. He made three starts last September, recording a 1.69 ERA and striking out 14 in 10 2/3 innings.

deGrom has only made nine starts through his first two seasons in Texas and only 35 starts over the past four years combined. He hasn’t thrown more than 100 innings since 2019 (204 in 32 starts), when he won his second consecutive Cy Young Award while with the Mets. That was the last time he was healthy across an entire season.

Bochy has said all spring that the goal for this year is to keep deGrom healthy. The slow build-up has been part of that process.

“He’s going as planned, no change there,” Bochy said.

That leaves Nathan Eovaldi as the Rangers' Opening Day starter for the second year in a row. With deGrom injured for much of the past two seasons, Eovaldi has been the de-facto ace of the staff, a run that included a handful of heroic performances in the 2023 postseason.

If the plan stands, it will be Eovaldi’s fifth career Opening Day start, after he was given the honors from 2020-22 in Boston.