Texas Rangers Ace Starting Pitcher Offers Encouraging Update on Elbow Rehab

The Texas Rangers made a huge splash ahead of the 2023 season, signing former New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom to one of the largest contracts in baseball history.
They agreed to a five-year, $185 million deal, but the team hasn’t received much return on that investment to this point.
Through his first two seasons with the Rangers, deGrom has been dominant with a 2.41 ERA, 1.74 FIP, 0.854 WHIP, 13.0 K/9 and minuscule 1.1 BB/9. All of those numbers were better than he had with the Mets.
Unfortunately, it has been in an incredibly small sample size.
Through two years, the two-time Cy Young Award winner has made only nine starts with 41 innings pitched.
It has continued a troubling trend that started during deGrom’s time in New York. In 2019, he made 32 starts; over his final three seasons with the Mets, he started only 38 games as the Rangers knew there was a risk in bringing him at the price it would cost.
During his time in Texas, deGrom has missed a lot of time because of elbow surgery, but he was able to make three starts in September. It was a big deal for him, as it built some positive momentum for the offseason, as he shared a positive update fans will love to hear.
"That way I could treat it like a normal offseason and not feel like I was in rehab mode the whole time," the ace starting pitcher said via the Associated Press on ESPN . "So that's what this offseason has been, you know, normal throwing. Been off the mound already and everything feels good."
Normally, deGrom would wait until Feb. 1 to start his throwing program in preparation for a season. But, he decided to start earlier this time around so that he could ease into things in Spring Training, hoping it would help keep him healthy.
The Rangers are certainly hoping that he can remain on the mound as he remains as dominant as ever. In 2023, his first campaign with the team, Texas won every game that he started.
In his final appearance of 2024, deGrom pitched four shutout innings against the Los Angeles Angels. But, more important than the outcome or his performance was that he was starting to unleash his fastball closer to full velocity, reaching 98 MPH.
It helped put his mind at ease, setting up an important offseason and Spring Training.
"In those games, you know, it's still a thought in the back of your mind, you just came back from a major surgery and you probably don't get another one at my age," he said.
"So it was, hey, is everything good? And then like I said, was able to check those boxes off in this offseason, treat it normal."