Texas Rangers Star Ace Still Rusty in His Return to Major League Baseball

Jacob deGrom was handed the ball for his third start of the season for the Texas Rangers on Saturday, and after an outing where he uncharacteristically gave up eight hits and only struck out three batters in 5 2/3 innings of work, the hope was he would bounce back against an offensively-challenged Seattle Mariners lineup.

That didn't happen, though.

The star ace gave up three earned runs and was pulled after four innings, walking four batters and running his pitch count up to 87.

It's clear that deGrom is still working his way back into being a Major League pitcher after only making nine starts the last two years combined before 2025.

"Didn't do anything well. Didn't locate well. Walked four guys. Didn't hold runners. With two strikes, didn't locate well. Was all over the place. Put us in a bad spot, and the bullpen had to cover a lot of innings," he said after the game, per Josh Kirshenbaum of MLB.com.

While he might be frustrated with his outing, the fact he's on the mound is a positive for the Rangers.

"We all expect so much from Jake. He's human, he was battling command," manager Bruce Bochy said.

Already without Jon Gray and Cody Bradford after they suffered injuries during spring training, it became that much more important for deGrom to remain available.

In that regard, it's been so far, so good.

Texas put the star ace on a pitch limit coming into the year with the hope that they could ease him back into action and prevent his arm from being worn out before they really need him down the stretch.

What deGrom looks like at that point is anyone's guess, though.

In his first start of the year, deGrom was his dominant self by allowing just two hits in a no-run outing where he struck out six in five innings of work.

But since then, he's allowed seven runs in 9 2/3 innings, striking out just seven batters while walking four.

Perhaps these early season struggles should have been expected.

After all, whenever any other player or pitcher returns from a long hiatus, the expectations for what they can immediately accomplish are pretty tempered.

That wasn't the case surrounding deGrom's return.

A lot of the think pieces heading into the year discussed him as an AL Cy Young contender, believing he'd jump right back into Hall of Fame-level form that he's showcased when healthy.

The past two starts have shown deGrom is human like Bochy said, and he's going to need some more time to regain his ace status to give this rotation one of the best one-two punches in the game alongside Nathan Eovaldi.

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