Rangers Starting Pitcher Report: Hits, Misses, Concern Index After 22 Games

The Texas Rangers have gotten solid starting pitching so far this season. But there are areas to keep an eye on.

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi. | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

The Texas Rangers are putting their faith in starting pitching this season. So far, the rotation has been solid.

Texas added to the rotation with MacKenzie Gore and paid a steep price to get him. Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi give the staff two great veterans to build around. Youngsters Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker are, fingers crossed, the future.

Texas has played 22 games, which means each starter has at least three games under their belt. So, what are the hits, the misses and the concerns so far? Here’s a look.  

Rangers Starters Through 22 Games

Texas Rangers starter MacKenzie Gore. | Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images

Aside from the one spot start that Jacob Latz made in the second game of the season, the Rangers have used the same five starters in the rotation. Through 22 games their numbers look like this:

deGrom: 1-0, four starts, 2.29 ERA, 25 strikeouts, six walks, 19.2 innings, .208 OBA

Eovaldi: 2-3, five starts, 5.06 ERA, 29 strikeouts, eight walks, 26.2 innings, .290 OBA

Gore: 2-2, five starts, 4.15 ERA, 35 strikeouts, 12 walks, 26 innings, .202 OBA

Leiter: 1-1, four starts, 4.87 ERA, 24 strikeouts, nine walks, 20.1 innings, .263 OBA

Rocker: 0-1, three starts, 4.30 ERA, 14 strikeouts, seven walks, 14.2 innings, .259 OBA

The Hits

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jacob deGrom. | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

Strikeout to Walk Ratio

Entering Sunday’s game against Seattle, Rangers starters had the fourth best strikeout to walk ratio in baseball at 2.98, with 125 strikeouts and 42 walks. That includes the four innings of spotless work Latz gave them in Philadelphia opening weekend. Only the New York Yankees, the Seattle Mariners and the Minnesota Twins had better rates.

The ERA

Before Sunday’s game Rangers starters had a 3.81 ERA this season. That’s in part due to what the rotation did in a 15-game run in which the rotation gave up four or more runs just once and trimmed the ERA by nearly two points. After a slow start, the rotation is doing its job. It’s keeping damage to a minimum.

The Misses

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Kumar Rocker. | Dennis Lee-Imagn Images

Inning Coverage

The starters, aside from Latz, have thrown 107.1 innings across 21 starts. That comes to 5.1 innings per start. That is part of the reason the bullpen is coming back from the 10-game road trip with some burnout. The Rangers got back-to-back quality starts from deGrom and Eovaldi last weekend. But after that Texas starters couldn’t cover more than 5.2 innings in six straight games. This staff must get deeper into games more consistently.

Quality Starts

This goes hand in hand with innings coverage. It’s why the rotation is tied for ninth in the AL in quality starts. A quality start is six innings allowing three or fewer earned runs and Texas only has five of them. Quality starts keep teams in games and usually give bullpens leads to work with.

Concern Index: Low

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jack Leiter. | Dennis Lee-Imagn Images

deGrom and Eovaldi should start giving this team the length it needs in the next week or two. deGrom had a slower build-up in the spring. He’s been effective even if he goes five. Eovaldi seems to have shaken off the early issues he had out of the gate. Gore has been a tremendous strikeout pitcher his 12 walks is a bit deceiving. He gave up six in one game. It’s not indicative of his control.

Leiter has been effective but just hasn’t gotten deep into games. Rocker has been less effective and pitch counts have been an issue, along with holding runners on base.

Latz gives them great depth. Overall, the unit is off to a solid start that could get better as the rotation settles in by the end of April.