Nathan Eovaldi’s Splitter Leads to Two Royals Home Runs in Spring Training Debut

SURPRISE, Ariz. — It was not Nathan Eovaldi’s most effective work.

The Texas Rangers starter allowed three runs on two home runs during his first start of spring training on Friday, one that included a pair of ABS challenges and a throwing error by shortstop Corey Seager.

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The plan was for Eovaldi to throw two innings or 30 pitches. He ended up with two innings and 29 pitches, with 21 of them being strikes. His splitter, one of his more reliable pitches, was the pitch he threw on both home runs.

Still, he came out of the start physically feeling fine.

“I felt good,” he said. “Body mechanics, everything felt good. Obviously, I was a little excited out there, rushing a little bit. But I felt like I filled up the zone pretty well. And, obviously the two home runs I’d like to have back.”

Breaking Down Nathan Eovaldi’s Start

Texas Rangers pitcher Nathan Eovaldi points a baseball at a camera. — Texas Rangers pitcher Nathan Eovaldi. | Arianna Grainey-Imagn Images

The first inning couldn’t have gone much better. Kansas City’s Makiel Garcia hit a high chopper right to Eovaldi who tossed it to first baseman Jake Burger. He followed that by getting Bobby Witt Jr. to ground out to Seager at shortstop and then struck out Vinnie Pasquantino. That at-bat featured the first challenge. Higashioka called for a challenge on a called ball to Pasquantino and it was upheld. The process took less than 30 seconds.

Things went sideways in the second. Long-time Royals catcher Salvador Perez slammed a 1-0 home run to left field, a no-doubt shot off an 88.2 mph splitter from Eovaldi. He said he wanted that pitch down and it ended up middle in.

Jac Caglianone followed that with a grounder to Seager that could have been the first out, but a throwing error left him safe at first and allowed him to advance to second.

Eovaldi struck out Lane Thomas which featured the other ABS challenge. Initially Thomas drew ball four before Eovaldi asked to challenge the call. This pitch was in the zone and Thomas went from a walk to a strikeout.

“It was a 3-2 count and that’s one of those situations where we talked about trying to challenge it,” he said. “Obviously we don’t want to lose them. We would have been out of challenges, but I went ahead and did it and, fortunately I was right.”

Unfortunately, Eovaldi followed that up by allowing a two-run home run to Michael Massey, which went into the right-field bullpen where Robert Garcia was beginning to warm up for the third inning.

“I yanked it,” Eovaldi said of the splitter that Massey homered. “I pulled that splitter inside to him and he’s really good inside.”

He wrapped up the frame by striking out Nick Loftin and getting Kevin Newman to fly out to right field. Eovaldi ended up facing the entire starting batting order for the Royals.

Eovaldi felt good about everything but the home runs and it left him something to work on between starts.

“I think it’s more about the reps, as opposed to the pitch count,” he said. “I tend to throw a lot of pitchers in the bullpens, and I don’t really get tired. For me it’s more about sitting down, getting back up and making sure I can pick up where I left off.”

The 36-year-old is coming off a great 2025 in which he went 11-3 with a 1.73 ERA in 22 games and 130 innings. He struck out 129 and walked 21 while finishing with a 0.854 WHIP. The only downside is that he missed more than two months of the season with various injuries, including a rotator cuff strain. He also had offseason sports hernia surgery and declared himself a full go at the start of camp.