'Great teammate' Eovaldi tinkering with pitch arsenal

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The Rangers¡¯ main priority this offseason was re-signing Nathan Eovaldi.

Eovaldi¡¯s main priority was finding a way to get back to Texas. Luckily, both sides were able to work it out when the Rangers brought Eovaldi back on a three-year, $75 million deal.

¡°It's been great,¡± Eovaldi said of being back. ¡°This is where I wanted to be; I¡¯m happy to be back with all the guys. Baseball's back, and it's just great getting everything together and going out there and playing our game.¡±

Eovaldi¡¯s value to the Rangers goes far beyond his 3.72 ERA over 314 2/3 innings during his first two seasons in Arlington.

He was the ace of a staff that was missing two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom for most of 2023-24. He was a postseason hero during the World Series run. And most of all, he¡¯s the biggest leader of all on the pitching staff.

He watches so many bullpens and live BPs that he¡¯ll just as soon give a quote on a teammate¡¯s bullpen as he does his own.

¡°We've talked about me quite a bit on this, it¡¯s just the intangibles that he brings,¡± manager Bruce Bochy said. ¡°He's such a great teammate, he cares about everybody, watches the pitchers throw their bullpens. He watches workouts when he's not doing anything. He¡¯s very engaged with the club and very, very highly thought of by his teammates. And he's all about winning. That's why he plays the game, to hopefully get back to the postseason and just try to win another championship. That's what he's about and and that's what comes off him, when players talk to him, doing things right and finding him to win.¡±

Eovaldi is all about finding ways to win. That includes messing around with his pitch arsenal in the offseason, even as a 13-year big league veteran.

In 2024, Eovaldi used a four-seamer (37.4% of the time), splitter (30.8%), cutter (14.8%), curveball (13.7%) and slider (3.3%), according to Statcast. He used all four pitches in his Cactus League debut against the Royals on Friday, with the surprise addition of a two-seamer, which he said he threw a handful of times.

¡°I've been working on that two-seam runner,¡± Eovaldi said. ¡°It wasn't as great today. In the offseason, the TrackMan results were awesome. We had good results from it and I was throwing it like I wanted to. Today, I was, I think, a little quick with everything. That¡¯s a little something to work on. I'm not going to be done with the pitch. I still believe in it. I think it's going to be a good weapon for me. But it¡¯s just the sequencing of everything. Today, with the two-seam, was down in the zone, and that's not where I really want to be. ¡­ I think that's one of the things I have to just be aware of.¡±

In his two innings of the Cactus League opener, a 5-2 loss to the Royals, Eovaldi allowed two runs on two hits, with a walk and a hit batter.

Eovaldi said he felt like he was rushing everything down the mound, which was frustrating as he tried to work the two-seamer into the mix.

¡°It just comes down to trusting and executing it,¡± he said. ¡°Today, I wasn't able to do that. But again, I think that's just along with the mechanics. I was quick and kind of rushing with everything. I think once I'm able to slow it down and start executing it better, it'll be a good weapon for me to use up and in to the righties and have another weapon inside and to help the splitter out and all the other offspeed stuff.¡±