Today: The Rangers have officially activated deGrom to make his first start of the 2024 season. In a pair of corresponding moves, the team optioned right-hander Owen White to Triple-A and transferred Corey Seager to the 60-day IL.
Sept. 10: Jacob deGrom makes his season debut on Friday. The Rangers announced that the two-time Cy Young winner will start that evening’s game in Seattle. It will be his first major league appearance since April 2023. deGrom underwent Tommy John surgery last June.
While deGrom’s return comes too late to give Texas any hope of a playoff push, it’s part of what should be a very exciting series. The Rangers will turn to top prospect Kumar Rocker for his MLB debut in Thursday’s opener. deGrom goes the following night. Manager Bruce Bochy told the beat this evening that Max Scherzer will be reinstated from the 15-day injured list to start on Saturday (X link via Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News). Texas will need to create space on the 40-man roster for both Rocker and deGrom.
deGrom has gotten through four rehab starts within the past few weeks. He has mowed down minor league hitters, striking out 15 while allowing only five baserunners over 10 2/3 innings. deGrom tossed four scoreless innings in just 49 pitches with Double-A Frisco on Saturday. Kennedi Landry of MLB.com wrote over the weekend that the Rangers had envisioned deGrom throwing somewhere around 60 pitches in that outing, though they ultimately elected to cap him at four innings when he pitched so efficiently. That could point to a potential 65-75 pitch count during this week’s start.
The Rangers should get three or four starts from deGrom before the end of the season. They’re not going to be of much significance in the standings (beyond the indirect effect of playing the Mariners, a fringe contender, at least once). Getting deGrom back for a few starts should at least give the pitcher and the front office some comfort going into the offseason. deGrom had battled a handful of arm issues late in his Mets tenure. He only managed six starts and 30 1/3 innings with Texas before suffering the significant elbow injury.
Few players are more important to the Rangers’ hope of a return to contention in 2025. deGrom may still be the best pitcher on the planet when healthy. He was utterly dominant for the Mets when he was able to pitch. He’d carried that form over in his first month in a Texas uniform, working to a 2.67 earned run average while striking out almost 40% of batters faced.
deGrom is going into the third season of a five-year, $185MM free agent deal. He’ll make $40MM next season, followed by successive salaries of $38MM and $36MM through 2027. The Tommy John surgery triggered a conditional team option in his deal for 2028. That’s valued at $20MM, though deGrom could push it to $30MM if he finishes in the top five in Cy Young balloting in any of the next three years.
Scherzer, meanwhile, has been out since the start of August because of a shoulder issue. He’d also missed most of the season’s first half rehabbing offseason back surgery and battling a nerve problem in his throwing hand. Scherzer has been limited to eight starts this season, turning in a 3.89 ERA across 39 1/3 innings. The future Hall of Famer will be a free agent next offseason. Scherzer has already declared he intends to continue pitching; he’ll be one of the top risk/reward plays in the starting pitching class.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
Kind of a captain obvious article imo
Pangolin
Kind of a pointless comment, in my opinion.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
Explain, make sure to type multiple paragraphs and cite factual evidence based on your claim to support your answer
DodgersBro
snmf
“cite factual evidence based on your claim to support your answer”
:sigh:
Literally middle school. A middle school level of education is what’s needed here.
And so many can’t get there
You don’t provide evidence based on your claim
Your claim should be, you know, based on the evidence. And, yes, you should support that. Like you were taught in middle school.
Patriot12992
If no one reports the obvious how would we ever know until deGrom just appears on the mound
SalaryCapMyth
You should ask for your money back.
LFGMets (Metsin7) #BannedForBeingABaseballExpert
World Series here they come!
CO Guardening
Excited for Kumar’s debut.
Mynameisnoname
Pretty pumped myself. I remember the draft drama this kid had to endure and his recent meteoric rise back into our periphery is pretty cool.
You won’t see much better stuff from SP than what the Rangers have to offer this Thursday and Friday.
Saint Nick
Over/under 1 start before he’s back on the IL?
DodgersBro
SN
Over
MLBTR has some of the saddest most negative baseball “fans” around.
Pathetic
stymeedone
deGrom is one of the most injury prone “pitchers” around. He’s a very good pitcher when healthy, when healthy. Unfortunately, his teams have had to pay full amount for no work. Lets hope it is the over.
DodgersBro
Stymee
“Unfortunately, his teams have had to pay full amount for no work”
Per FanGraphs, deGrom has produced $340,000,000 in value to this point in his career.
He has been paid less than $340,000,000 to this point in his career. He has been, to this point, a massive bargain.
mlb fan
“$340,000,000..massive bargain”….That’s completely ridiculous. A pitcher who rarely pitches and keeps a lower profile than an ex-mobster in “Witness Protection” produces $340,000,000 in “value” while being sidelined 2/3’s of the time?
I think your post proves that projections, estimates and forecasts are about as reliable and believable as the posts here in the comments section of Trade Rumors.
I could see a World renowned athlete like Ohtani doing that, but the practically anonymous(outside of hardcore baseball circles)Jacob Degrom producing that kind of value is ludicrous in my opinion.
If that were were true every team in MLB would be clamoring to sign Degrom, even as his previous team (Mets) showed zero interest in matching the Ranger’s offer.
NashvilleJeff
“Completely ridiculous” is an accurate description of every comment posted by DodgersBro. He’s just an angry little boy troll that bans everyone who dares to dispute his garbage.
Canuckleball
The first 7 seasons of his career he was mostly to fully available. It’s only been the last 3 seasons where he’s truly missed loads of time.
And in those first 7 seasons, he put up incredible numbers
DodgersBro is correct. Using the roughly $8 million per WAR calculation that is most common for determining value, deGrom has generated about $350 million in value.
He’s made ‘only’ $142 million to this point (less then half what he was worth)
DodgersBro
mlb f
“I think your post proves that projections, estimates and forecasts are about as reliable and believable”
what I posted has nothing to do with projections, estimates and forecasts.
It;s like you don’t know what the F you are talking about.
DodgersBro
Canuck
Right.
Who am I going to believe? The website with a rational methodology that has been laid out so people can understand exactly how they come to their conclusions, or the random MLBTR commenter who “watches the games” and trolls away.?
Tough call
mlb fan
“Who am I going to believe?…website with a rational methodology”…Some people buy into pretty much everything and anything on the internet and MSM and some don’t.
It’s that simple really. There actually was baseball being viewed and analyzed long before projections, forecasts, analytics and estimates my friend.
Dustyslambchops23
This makes no sense at all. You admit that analysis was always part of the game, front offices had ways to analyze data and performance, Nolan Ryan was the first 1m pitcher because of his performance, even back then there were ways to figure out he was good and bad.
Now analytics have great improved, but by any measure you want, 1980s or 2024, Degrom is a generational pitcher while on the field.
The claim that he’s been worth far more than he’s been paid it’s a justified claim but a bit misleading because while the calculation of WAR works out to a # figure it’s not really applicable to the first 6 years of a players career since they can’t be free agents.
In his first 6 years he made about 28 million and was about a 28 WAR player, which is insanely underpaid given this value. If it was a free agent contract it would be the best signing of all time. That’s how baseball works, if you’re good young you’re underpaid and the hope is that you’re healthy enough to be overpaid later
DodgersBro
mlbf
1) Don’t insult me by calling me your friend. You are not my friend
2) There were also blowhards who thought they knew more than they did about baseball throughout history. Again, I trust in the people who present their information in a rational way with a clear methodology. I don’t trust in people who try to discount rational understanding and a clear methodology in favor of “trust me”.
If you don’t think he’s been worth that, present your reasoning as to why.
imissjoebuzas
Dodger Bro would make a great agent. Or a used car salesman. Baseball agents are there to get the most money for their players. And good ones do.
But in this case, over deGrom’s last three seasons, if you project he will get 4 more starts this year successfully, Jake will have collected $ 105,500,000.00 for 21 starts.
I didn’t misplace the decimal point. One hundred five million five hundred thousand dollars for 21 appearances.
That is why Texas was bidding against itself. Almost the equivalent of paying new car prices for a Maserati with 500,000 hard miles on it just because it’s a Maserati. Great car. Great performance in the past. But keeping it out of the shop for the next five years? It wasn’t new to begin with.
CleaverGreene
Bro, you are including his first 5 years at team control.. The last 6 years he has had 76 starts combined and was paid 170M.
DodgersBro
imjb
“Dodger Bro would make a great agent. Or a used car salesman. ”
Thanks. But I’m not sure that you’re correct. I’m honest in my valuations. Is that a good skill for those positions?
This was the statement that I was responding to
“Unfortunately, his teams have had to pay full amount for no work”
This was my response:
“Per FanGraphs, deGrom has produced $340,000,000 in value to this point in his career.
He has been paid less than $340,000,000 to this point in his career. He has been, to this point, a massive bargain.”
My response was 100% true and 100% relevant
Stymee said “teams”. Plural. He has been a massive bargain when taking his time with BOTH TEAMS into consideration
He has not been a great bargain when looking only at his time with the Rangers.
DodgersBro
CG
“Bro, you are including his first 5 years at team control.. The last 6 years he has had 76 starts combined and was paid 170M.”
Yes. He has been a massive bargain overall. That’s what I said
CleaverGreene
He’s made 187M to date. 170M in his last 6 years for 76 starts.
That’s 12 starts a year , on average, @ 28M a year.
DodgersBro
CG
Ok? Cool
“He’s made 187M to date”
And produced $340 million in wins
But, you can take Jordan Lyles and all of his starts if starts are what you care about. Why don’t you figure his cost per start. Maybe that will be more to your liking
I mean, do you think you’re unveiling some unknown information by pointing out that deGrom has been injured?
He was a massive bargain with the Mets and hasn’t produced to his contact with the Rangers
Wow! Stop the presses! You’ve really uncovered something here.
inutero
you’re the one that sounds angry here, “big mad” dare I say.
Patriot12992
The lengths people will go to defend players is wild, that is a totally made up number.
DodgersBro
Patriot
“that is a totally made up number.”
Exactly
The people claiming that he hasn’t been worth $340 million are just making that up.
They haven’t provided any support for how much they think he has been worth. They just say “Nuh uh. Can’t be”. Totally made up.
mlb fan
“You’re not my friend”…Grow up bro. Grow up. You sound like an angry teenager.
its_happening
Ah DodgerBro cooking up more BS. Wins based on a statistical equation that does not necessarily translate into actual winning.
Hard to win from the IL. Mark that down. It’s better than any fortune cookie you will read.
Your schtick isn’t working. Your childish antics isn’t appealing. Stop talking.
DodgersBro
I_h
“BS”
But enough about your comments
If you think he hasn’t produced less than $340 million in value how much do you think he has produced?
A simple question
That you won’t answer
Because you don’t know
Right?
gbs42
They listed deGrom’s Ks in his rehab starts, so all is right with the world again.
DodgersBro
gbs
“They listed deGrom’s Ks in his rehab starts”
Imagine if they posted an article about a player and said “Player A is having a great year with 12 doubles.”
Or, better yet, imagine if some commenter said that about a player.
You’d be one of many to jump on that saying it was a dumb way to talk about a players’ performance.
Posting ERA over 10 minor league rehab innings is worse than that.
Stevil
The mute option helped tremendously.
Acoss1331
Degrom has 1600 strikeouts in 9 seasons, not even 9 full seasons. This guy would have gotten 3000 strikeouts easy if he had stayed healthy…
Canuckleball
One could argue that he achieved that high strikeout total by using an unsustainable style of pitching, and had he used a sustainable style of pitching, he wouldn’t have been able to come close to 3000 k’s
Dustyslambchops23
If there was a sustainable style of pitching that was successful pitchers wouldnt need to line up for TJ.
The Mark Buerhle era is over.
its_happening
His style resulted in generational wealth. It was worth it.
holecamels35
Well he didn’t stay healthy and that’s just as much part of the game and pitching in general. Usually a reason for a guy to blow out his arm three times.
letitbelowenstein
Can make the same case for Sale and Darvish.
Clofreesz
Just don’t get hurt for 2025! Amazing pitcher whose talent had been stolen away from the game by injuries.
Miken31
Of course, he will be hurt again at some point next year. I don’t think he’ll ever be able to make more than 20 starts again in a season.
Cat Mando
Rubbing my crystal ball
Me – “Eenie Beanie, Chili Beanie. The Spirits are about to Speak!”
My little flying friend – “Ask about the future”
Me – “Spirits, what do you see in the headlines for Saturday?”
Spirits – “DeGrom to undergo MRI after departing Friday’s start.”
My little flying friend – “C’mon spirits! Tell us something we didn’t already guess!!”
CO Guardening
When you remember this guy hasn’t pitched a full season since 2019, maybe all the haters are on to something?
FemboySportsFan!
They aren’t on to anything, they want to see degrom fail for no reason at all.
dlj0527
Hope he can stick around and pitch in MLB. Still pretty shocking to see what became of him and the other young starters on the mid-2010’s Met teams that included one pennant team in 2015.
bkny98
MR. AFLAC
MLBTR needs to hire editors
“Meanwhile” needs to start the sentence. As a conjunctive adverb, it can’t come in the middle between commas.
bcjd
Poppycock. Your proscriptive approach to grammar is based on a misconception of the nature of language. The writer used “meanwhile” in a manner entirely consistent with communicating the intended information. Our language is marvelous precisely because of that kind of flexibility.
MLBTR needs to hire editors
Are you saying that style guides are prescriptive? “Flexibility” isn’t just license to violate certain rules or, as in this case, create choppy prose that would flow much better if the subject and verb weren’t separated.
Just because it communicates information well enough, it doesn’t make it correct. If you tell me “your bad at grammar,” I know your meaning, but it’s still wrong.
gbs42
It can and did. Should or shouldn’t is a different discussion. I would think you would understand the difference.
MLBTR needs to hire editors
It can’t and shouldn’t.
gbs42
It shouldn’t but can and did. I read it myself, and so did you.
MLBTR needs to hire editors
Splitting subject and verb unnecessarily is going to get marked by any English professor.
gbs42
Fair point, but if you’re going to these lengths to point out their grammatical errors, it seems fair to point out yours. What can’t and shouldn’t be done are different things.
MLBTR needs to hire editors
If you agree that “meanwhile” shouldn’t be used this way, why are you arguing for it?
gbs42
I’m not arguing for it. I’m arguing your attempt to correct their grammar had its own error.
You said, “it can’t come in the middle between commas.” The fact is, it can, as evidenced by the fact that it did in the sentence you critiqued. You should have used “shouldn’t” instead of “can’t.”
They’ve made many more egregious errors, and I found your pedantic assault on this one amusing enough to challenge.
MLBTR needs to hire editors
That’s not a grammatical error… that’s a matter of your own opinion.
gbs42
Okay, define “can’t” and “shouldn’t.” Because unless you’ve changed their definitions, you’re incorrect.
MLBTR needs to hire editors
A grammatical error would be if I said “it don’t come in the middle.” You’re arguing about word choice, not grammar.
gbs42
Regardless, you’re wrong.
MLBTR needs to hire editors
No, you are because you don’t know the difference between diction and grammar.
gbs42
I “can’t” tell the difference, or I “shouldn’t?”
MLBTR needs to hire editors
You can’t tell the difference and you should be able if you’re going to reproof me.
gbs42
Define can’t and shouldn’t.
MLBTR needs to hire editors
Can’t: you are unable to. Shouldn’t: you can, but it’s a bad idea.
You meet the first criteria. You are unable to tell the difference between diction and grammar.
gbs42
Well, at least you finally admit you are unable to tell the difference between how can’t and shouldn’t should be used.
MLBTR needs to hire editors
Is English not your first language? This would explain a lot about your commenting. Because those are the definitions.
gbs42
Yes, those are the correct definitions, proving you missed “can’t.”
letitbelowenstein
Boo
DarrenDreifortsContract
Only to be put back onto the DL tomorrow.
DodgersBro
DDC
Troll, troll, troll, troll, troll
Do you even like baseball
I can’t recall seeing a single comment from you that wasn’t negative
its_happening
DodgerTroll stop. Cant recall a single intelligent comment from you and yet you’re here trolling by calling others a troll. Stop talking.
DodgersBro
i_h
Not my fault that most of what goes on here is trolling and not insurgent connecting.
I’d love it if there were more basebsll related comments then losers insulting professional baseball players. But the is what MLBTR has fostered
This one belongs to the Reds
Yeah! Make DeGrom earn that money!