Texas Rangers Star Ace Named Biggest 'X-Factor' for Getting Back to Postseason

The Texas Rangers veteran ace will be their biggest X-factor in trying to get back to the postseason.

Sep 20, 2024; Arlington, Texas, USA; Texas Rangers pitcher Jacob deGrom (48) throws a pitch against the Seattle Mariners in the first inning at Globe Life Field. | Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

The Texas Rangers won the World Series in 2023, but failed to make the postseason in 2024.

That is how baseball works sometimes, but the Rangers will be doing all they can to get back to glory this year.

MLB.com's Thomas Harrigan recently went over the top teams trying to get back into the playoffs and who their biggest "X-factor" will be in that hunt.

For Texas, it was the oft-injured Jacob deGrom.

When deGrom is healthy, he is undoubtedly one of the best pitchers in baseball.

The problem is that he isn't healthy very often.

Since the start of the 2020 campaign, he has a 2.10 ERA with a 0.750 WHIP, 13.9 K/9 and a 194 ERA+. That is a historic run on paper.

But he has averaged just 53.0 innings per season in that time.

The Rangers signed deGrom to a five-year, $185 million deal back in 2023. He had to undergo Tommy John just 30.1 innings into that deal.

The two-time NL Cy Young-winning pitcher made his return in September of 2024 and kept that form going, albeit in just a 10.2 inning sample size.

It is always scary to watch a pitcher come back from that procedure since no one knows when they are going to return or what they are going to look like when they do.

Texas may have gotten a little bit lucky this time around with deGrom, but now they just need him to find a way to stay on the mound.

The Rangers made a huge investment in him the first time around, and it hasn't paid off in the slightest. They won a ring after his signing, but he didn't play a role in the win.

Last year, Texas' starting pitching accounted for a bottom 10 ERA, strikeouts, wins, losses and pretty much anything else that could be measured.

Despite that, the club signed just one starting pitcher this offseason; Patrick Corbin.

While Corbin is a reliable innings eater, he has a 5.71 ERA and 71 ERA+ over the last four years.

That means the Rangers are counting on their in-house players to step up and play batter (or play at all), and deGrom is at the top of that list.

If the 36-year-old is healthy, it should be enough to push Texas back into the postseason.