BREAKING: Texas Rangers' Jacob deGrom Leaves Start Early vs. Kansas City Royals
We just finished writing a story on Texas Rangers ace Jacob deGrom. We wrote about the sorcery that was the pitching overlay that was posted on Twitter by Rob Friedman aka "Pitching Ninja."
You can read that story and see that insane overlay here.
Right after we pressed enter on that story, breaking news came out that deGrom had left his Monday start early. deGrom had thrown four no-hit innings against Royals with five strikeouts.
Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News tweeted out the news of his departure, saying "Jacob deGrom is out of the game after four no-hit innings. Dane Dunning is on to pitch for the Rangers. Awaiting word on early exit."
deGrom, 34, is one of the best pitchers of his era. He's won the National League Rookie of the Year (2014), has been to the all-star game four times (2015, 2018-19, 2021), has won the National League Cy Young twice (2018-19) and finished in the top 10 in Cy Young voting a total of six times.
He left the Mets after nine years this offseason, signing a five-year, $185 million contract with Texas. The Rangers have spent a lot of money the last two offseasons in an effort to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. They spent on deGrom this offseason as well as starters Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney.
Last year, they spent on starting pitcher Jon Gray and offensive pieces Corey Seager and Marcus Semien. Seager is currently out with a hamstring issue while Gray was recently hit by a line drive.
Injuries have been a part of deGrom's recent history as well, so there is always a concern that this is injury-related. He made just 11 starts in 2022 after making just 15 in 2021. He hasn't made more than 30 starts since 2019, although the 2020 season was shortened because of the pandemic.
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