Texas Rangers Star Pitcher Working Back From Injury Showcasing Excellent Stuff

One of the keys to the Texas Rangers returning back to the top of the standings is their starting pitching staff.

The team suffered a few losses this offseason with Max Scherzer and Andrew Heaney both departing, agreeing to free agent deals with the Toronto Blue Jays and Pittsburgh Pirates, respectively.

Nathan Eovaldi was retained, agreeing to a three-year, $75 million deal, but there weren’t any Major League additions to help replace the losses.

Instead, the Rangers will be relying on in-house options, such as top prospects Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter.

Texas will also have veterans returning to the mix that have been dealing with injuries.

All eyes have been on Jacob deGrom in that regard, as he is looking to regain his spot atop the pitcher rankings now that he is healthy again.

But, he isn’t the only starting pitcher the team has high hopes for heading into 2025.

Tyler Mahle is also going to be factoring into the mix for the starting rotation after making only three starts last year.

It has been years since Mahle has been a regular producer for a Major League team. In 2022, he made an MLB-high 33 starts and broke out with the Cincinnati Reds.

In the three years since that point, he has made a total of 31; 22 of which came in 2023 when he started 19 games for the Reds before being traded to the Minnesota Twins and making only four starts the remainder of the season.

Mahle was on the mound for only five starts in 2023 with the Twins before hitting free agency and signing with Texas. His only appearances in 2024 were three starts in August in which he threw 12.2 innings.

Working his way back from Tommy John surgery rehab, he suffered from right shoulder tightness, which knocked him out for the remainder of 2024.

Now healthy and ramping things back up this spring, Mahle is already showcasing midseason form with his secondary pitches.

He has not yet unleashed his fastball, which was clocked at an average of 90.8 mph during his most recent appearance against the Seattle Mariners. That certainly skewed his proStuff+ numbers, as the four-seamer earned an underwhelming score of 73.

Despite the fastball being a work in progress, the rest of Mahle’s pitchers were operating like he was in midseason form.

His splitter, slider and cutter all registered proStuff+ scores in triple digits, an impressive feat working off a fastball that is not yet close to its full potential.

Despite Tyler Mahle using Spring Training to ramp up his velocity, his secondary pitches still looked great!

The former workhorse, who has been hounded by injuries in recent years, should make an IMMEDIATE impact with the Rangers over a full season! pic.twitter.com/N8Ec7W5EAj
— Pitch Profiler (@pitchprofiler) February 27, 2025

Working up his endurance and arm strength, Mahle pitched three stellar innings against the Mariners, allowing only two hits with zero walks and one strikeout.

The results aren’t overly important for a veteran just looking to work his way back to normal health, but they are certainly a nice touch on top of his pitches being executed at a high level.

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