Texas Rangers

The Philadelphia Phillies and Texas Rangers will be under the national spotlight during the first week of the 2023 Major League Baseball season.

ESPN announced its Sunday Night Baseball schedule, and the Phillies will travel to face the Rangers for the first broadcast April 2. That means fans will get a first look at the reigning National League champions and a Rangers squad hoping to compete in the American League West.

This will be the 34th straight year for Sunday Night Baseball, and play-by-play announcer Karl Ravech will be joined by David Cone and Eduardo Perez in the booth. ESPN's Buster Olney will also be included in the broadcasts.

That the Phillies will be highlighted comes as no surprise.

They went to the World Series last season behind a daunting lineup that included Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Rhys Hoskins, J.T. Realmuto and Nick Castellanos, among others. They also agreed to an 11-year, $300 million deal with shortstop Trea Turner this offseason, adding even more pop to their offense.

Turner is a World Series champion, two-time All-Star, Silver Slugger and batting title winner who is still in his prime at 29 years old.

As for Texas, it made waves this offseason as well when it brought in pitcher Jacob deGrom on a five-year, $185 million deal with a sixth-year option that could bring the value to $222 million. While deGrom comes with injury risk, he is also one of the best pitchers in the entire league when healthy.

His resume includes two Cy Young awards, four All-Star selections, Rookie of the Year honors and an ERA title.

Philadelphia will be plenty familiar with deGrom if he pitches in the Sunday night game considering he spent the first nine years of his career on the NL East rival New York Mets.

There will be no shortage of star power in that matchup as both teams attempt to get off to an ideal start in the 2023 season.

Superstar pitcher Jacob deGrom left the New York Mets in free agency, signing a five-year, $185 million deal with the Texas Rangers, and he opened up about his decision during a press conference Thursday.

"The Rangers did a great job with constant communication and making me feel like they really wanted me here," deGrom said, per ESPN. "The vision was the same: Build something great and win year in and year out."

DeGrom added that Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, who agreed to significant deals with the Rangers last offseason, played a large role in his decision to join the club.

The right-hander, who has been beset by injuries over the last several years, spent the first nine seasons of his career with the Mets, winning two Cy Young Awards and an ERA title. He was also named to the All-Star Game four times.

In search of a more lucrative deal this winter, deGrom opted out of the final guaranteed year of his pact with the Mets, which was worth $30.5 million (New York held a $32.5 million club option for '24). During his tenure with the club, he went 82-57 with a 2.52 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 1,607 strikeouts in 1,326 innings across 209 starts.

DeGrom's best season came in 2018 when he went 10-9 with a 1.70 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 269 strikeouts in 217 innings across 32 starts.

Last season, he went 5-4 with a 3.08 ERA, 0.75 WHIP and 102 strikeouts in 64.1 innings across 11 starts. He didn't make his season debut until August because of a stress reaction in his right scapula.

The Rangers hope deGrom can stay healthy and headline their rotation for years to come. He joins a group that includes Jon Gray, Jake Odorizzi, Martín Pérez and the newly signed Andrew Heaney.

If all goes to plan, the Rangers could make a postseason appearance in 2023 for the first time since 2016.

Jacob deGrom is a Texas Ranger now, and his bank account and the team's watchability are better for it.

Whether the Rangers will do as much winning as they want around deGrom is a whole 'nother question. And in a related story, there's now a question about what the Mets will do with the deGrom-sized hole in their starting rotation.

Let's grant that the Mets didn't let deGrom go without a fight. Or, more accurately, a solid offer. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports it was in the range of three years and $120 million. Had the 34-year-old accepted, the $40 million average annual value of his deal would have ranked behind only fellow multi-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer.

But, well, can you blame deGrom for accepting the Rangers' five-year, $185 million offer?

The best pitcher in baseball is ours. pic.twitter.com/ZydQmZSqoW

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) December 3, 2022

No. No you cannot. Beyond being more than what the Mets—who reportedly never got to make a final offer—offered deGrom, it's substantially more than even the most generous contract forecasters had pegged him for.

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deGrom Is the Big Winner Here

It's appropriate that deGrom would end his first foray into free agency by blowing away expectations. Story of his career, as it were.

Far from a can't-miss prospect, deGrom was only a ninth-round pick out of Stetson University in 2010. His pro career got off to an inauspicious start when he underwent Tommy John surgery shortly thereafter, and at no point between then and his major league debut in May of 2014 was he considered a top-100 talent.

We all know what happened next, of course.

National League Rookie of the Year in 2014. All-Star and postseason sensation in 2015. Then continued excellence in 2016 and 2017, followed by a transformation into "deGOAT" starting with the first of back-to-back Cy Young Award-winning seasons in 2018 and 2019.

Between 2018 and 2021, deGrom pitched to a 1.94 ERA with 655 more strikeouts than walks. This was largely an exercise in him throwing hard, harder, hardest and hardest-er, culminating in him averaging 99.3 mph on his four-seamer and 91.4 mph on his slider in '21.

There are nonetheless good reasons why you could practically hear an audible gasp coming from the baseball world when the Rangers announced their deal with deGrom.

The short version: The guy was sidelined for more than a year between July 7, 2021 and Aug. 2, 2022, initially by way of forearm and elbow trouble and then because of persistent shoulder injuries. He's made only 12 starts since that fateful date in July.

There was never any doubt that deGrom made the right call when he opted out of his contract with the Mets, but his age and the spooky shadow cast by those injuries invariably put a damper on expectations for what he would find on the open market. Nobody (including us) saw him getting anything longer than three years, much less a guarantee at the high end of the $100 million range.

And yet, here we are. Or rather, there he is. The same Jacob deGrom, only now with more money than he could spend in multiple lifetimes. That deserves a tip of the ol' cap and an unironic "good for him."

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The Rangers Get an 'A' for Effort, Anyway

As for how deGrom's contract landed so far above and beyond expectations, one assumes it was a case of his agents at VC Sports Group driving a hard bargain with an organization that really was that desperate for starting pitching.

General manager Chris Young, who took over leadership of the team's front office after Jon Daniels was fired in August, indeed said this was the case in November. And rightfully so, given that Rangers starters ranked 25th in rWAR this past season.

Cold take: signing deGrom will help move that needle in the right direction.

Semi-hot take: not enough to make Rangers a good team, though.

The Rangers were more than just one player away from better things as they were losing 94 games this year, and FanGraphs' WAR projections for 2023 still only tab them as the fourth-best team in the American League West.

Even with six spots now up for grabs, the Rangers are thus less than a shoo-in for this year's playoffs. That could change depending on what else they do with their winter, but that hinges on how much further they're willing to push their payroll. At $170 million, it's already projected to set a new franchise record in 2023.

What's more, Young's reasoning for believing that deGrom can be the difference-maker the club needs is at least half-suspect:

“Certainly we acknowledge that there's been, in the last couple of years, some injuries. But we also feel comfortable with the way Jacob finished the season, the way the ball was coming out of his arm right at the end of the season. We feel like we have a great medical team. We have high confidence in their ability to keep our players on the field.

The fact check on the Rangers having a great medical team reads as "true." Per Spotrac, the 623 days their pitchers logged on the injured list in 2022 were the fourth-fewest in MLB.

Still, having a great medical team isn't the same as having a stable of miracle workers. And while deGrom could potentially help his own durability cause by easing up on the velo, he's at an age where that might start happening whether he wants it to or not.

Such was the case even this season, as his fastball velocity was vintage at the start and then began to sag:

While deGrom did find the gas again in his one and only playoff start, that was coming off seven days of rest. That's a luxury the likes of which he won't often have going forward.

Of course, deGrom doesn't necessarily need to earn every last dime of his $185 million in 2023 alone. But sooner would certainly be better, as both his dominance and durability are likely to become even bigger question marks as he gets closer to his age-39 season and the end of the guaranteed portion of his contract in 2027.

If the Rangers fail to win because of deGrom in the near-term, it doesn't figure to be any easier to win in spite of him in the longer term. The amount of money they have invested in him, Corey Seager ($32.5 million AAV) and Marcus Semien ($25 million AAV) will require the Rangers to score on basically every player they develop from within in the coming years.

The current strength of their farm system makes that doable in theory, but there's a reason that "prospects will break your heart" is a saying in reality. And as the Rangers' recent history isn't exactly littered with homegrown success stories, the benefit of the doubt is hard to give.

All of this is to say that the Rangers don't get a "good for them" to go with deGrom's "good for him." What they deserve is more like a "good luck."

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Pressure's on You Now, Mets

It was only a couple weeks ago that Mike Puma of the New York Post reported that the "organizational belief" within the Mets was that deGrom was going to stay put.

Well, you know what they say. Money talks, and organizational beliefs walk.

The good thing about this situation for the Mets is that deGrom's decision didnt come at a moment that left the team with little in the way of fallback options. Justin Verlander, a three-time Cy Young Award winner in his own right, and Carlos Rodón, who's been perhaps MLB's most dominant pitcher on a rate basis over the last two years, are still available.

The Mets are determined to add one of them, according to SNY's Andy Martino, who further adds that Verlander is "front and center" in the team's plans.

Neither Verlander nor Rodón ever figured to come cheap, and it may be fair to assume that their price tags have only gone up in the wake of deGrom's pact with Texas. Dealing with the Mets may be a means to push said tags higher still, as the team's need of a deGrom-like ace is now hypothetically that much easier to explot.

It's a good thing, then, that Mets owner Steve Cohen's pockets go deep. Deeper than any other MLB owner's, at least, which will make it that much more disappointing if they suddenly become shallow in pursuit of Verlander or Rodón.

If it turns out that neither comes to Queens, the sting of deGrom's departure will become a sore that the Mets will be hard-pressed to cover up in 2023 and beyond.

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Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.

The New York Mets and Texas Rangers are reportedly among the "many" teams pursuing free-agent pitcher Jameson Taillon.

Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported Taillon will get an "extremely good deal" in what's been a player-friendly market thus far.

The righty spent the last two seasons with the New York Yankees after injuries derailed a promising start to his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Healthy the last two years, Taillon compiled a 22-11 record with a 4.08 ERA and 1.16 WHIP in 61 starts.

The Mets and Rangers both being interested creates an intriguing dynamic given the fact Texas just signed Jacob deGrom to a five-year contract. DeGrom spent his first nine MLB seasons in New York, emerging as the best pitcher in baseball, and is coming off back-to-back injury-plagued campaigns.

The $185 million deal might make the Rangers a little more budget-conscious in filling out the remainder of their roster, which could take them out of the Taillon sweepstakes.

Meanwhile, the Mets have $30-$40 million in surplus cash now that was previously earmarked for deGrom. No one would argue Taillon is even close to the same stratosphere as deGrom from a talent standpoint, but he's a solid arm for the back half of the rotation.

The Mets could use the money saved on a deGrom contract to create a more well-balanced—and, hopefully, healthier—roster for the 2023 season.

As it stands, it appears Taillon will be getting paid above his expected market value given the interest so far.

The New York Mets are going to need a new ace.

Star pitcher Jacob deGrom has agreed to a five-year deal with the Texas Rangers, the club announced Friday. The deal is worth $185 million and has a sixth-year option that could make it worth $222 million in total, per ESPN's Jeff Passan.

The Mets never made a final offer to deGrom, per Mike Puma of the New York Post.

DeGrom, in search of a more lucrative deal, became a free agent this winter after opting out of the final two years and $53 million on his five-year contract with the Mets. He had spent the first nine years of his career in New York, emerging as one of the best arms in baseball despite a string of injuries.

In his nine seasons with the Mets, the two-time Cy Young winner and four-time All-Star went 82-57 with a 2.52 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 1,607 strikeouts in 1,326 innings across 209 starts.

DeGrom's best season came in 2018 when he went 10-9 with a 1.70 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 269 strikeouts in 217 innings across 32 starts en route to his first-ever Cy Young award. He also won the Cy Young in 2019.

However, things got rough for deGrom after winning back-to-back Cy Youngs. He was limited to just 15 starts in 2021 because of an elbow injury and made just 11 starts in 2022 because of a shoulder ailment.

That said, he was still effective in each of those seasons when he did pitch. In 26 starts across 2021 and 2022, the 34-year-old posted a 12-6 record, 1.90 ERA, 0.63 WHIP and 248 strikeouts in 156.1 innings.

Despite the injuries, the Rangers are still getting one heck of an arm for their rotation. So, here's three instant reactions from Texas' blockbuster signing.

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Rangers Prove They're Ready to Contend in 2023

Despite the additions of Marcus Semien and Corey Seager, the Rangers finished fourth in the American League West in 2022 with a 68-94 record and missed the postseason for the sixth straight year.

While the signing of deGrom may not truly make the Rangers contenders in the division alongside the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners, the club has at least proven it is sick of being a cellar-dweller and is ready to contend.

The Rangers were in desperate need of an ace on the mound following a disappointing 2022 campaign from its starters, and they did more than just address that need in signing deGrom.

Last season, the Rangers starting pitching ranked 25th in MLB with a 4.63 ERA. The only teams that were worse were the Oakland Athletics, Kansas City Royals, Cincinnati Reds, Colorado Rockies and Washington Nationals.

In 2023, deGrom will anchor a Texas rotation that includes Jon Gray, Jake Odorizzi and Martín Pérez, who was one of the team's best arms last season, posting a 12-8 record with a 2.89 ERA and 1.26 WHIP in 32 starts.

The signing of deGrom proves the Rangers are willing to spend in order to improve, and they should at the very least post more wins in 2023 than they did in 2022. Even if they don't, they're ready to build their rotation around deGrom in the years to come.

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How Will Mets Replace DeGrom?

Let's be clear, there's no replacing deGrom. However, the Mets will need to at least attempt to address the hole his departure left in the rotation.

As it stands, Max Scherzer will serve as the team's No. 1 in 2023, and while the three-time Cy Young winner had a solid 2022 campaign, there's no question he's past his prime at 38. He posted a 11-5 record last season with a 2.29 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 173 strikeouts in 145.1 innings across 23 starts.

Beyond Scherzer, the Mets' rotation is filled out by Carlos Carrasco, David Peterson and Tylor Megill. With some top-tier talent still available on the market, it's hard to believe the club won't add another arm this winter.

Even before deGrom's exit, the Mets have sought out some of the top available free agent pitchers this winter, including Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga, Jameson Taillon and Carlos Rodón.

Of course, all are being pursued by many, but with deGrom's contract off the books, the Mets should be making some interesting offers to some of the top arms available, especially after locking up superstar closer Edwin Díaz to a five-year, $102 million deal.

It's unclear which of those arms, if any, are New York's top target following deGrom's exit. However, Verlander should at least be very high on the list.

The 39-year-old is coming off arguably his best season in 2022, posting an 18-4 record, 1.75 ERA, 0.83 WHIP and 185 strikeouts in 175 innings across 28 starts. He also won the Cy Young award, the third of his career.

What's even more impressive is that Verlander accomplished the feat after missing all but one game in 2020 and the entire 2021 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

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Will DeGrom Be Worth the Money?

$185 million—and potentially up to $222 million—is a lot of money to commit to deGrom. One of the biggest questions following this signing is: Will deGrom be worth the money?

The simple answer is that it all comes down to health.

If deGrom remains mostly healthy throughout his five-year career, then it's reasonable to believe he will be more than worth the $185 million the Rangers committed to him. But if he's constantly out of the lineup with injuries, then there's a problem.

DeGrom hasn't made more than 15 starts in a season since he made 32 starts and won the Cy Young in 2019. While that was just four years ago, he has endured a significant amount of injuries since then, including elbow inflammation, a stress reaction in his scapula and forearm tightness.

However, the Rangers will likely keep a close eye on deGrom throughout his tenure knowing that he has been injury-prone over the last few seasons. Managing his starts will be key to keeping him healthy through the duration of his contract.

There should be optimism about deGrom entering 2023, but fans will undoubtedly be concerned if he misses a significant amount of time next season.

The Texas Rangers have signed former New York Mets ace pitcher Jacob deGrom to a five-year, $185 million contract, per ESPN's Jeff Passan.

The two-time National League Cy Young Award winner now leads a rotation that includes Jon Gray, Martín Pérez, Jake Odorizzi and Dane Dunning, per FanGraphs, which also projects Texas for a $177 million payroll in 2023 (ninth in MLB).

Texas has a top-heavy payroll with deGrom, shortstop Corey Seager and second baseman Marcus Semien leading the way. Texas signed Seager to a 10-year, $325 million contract, and Semien inked a seven-season, $175 million deal.

The Rangers struggled last year despite the addition of their two middle infielders, finishing fourth in the American League West with a 68-94 record.

Texas struggled offensively (ninth in the AL in OPS) and on the mound (12th in the AL in ERA). DeGrom should at least serve as the bona fide ace of a rotation that looks solid on paper, especially after the Rangers traded for Odorizzi to strengthen the back end.

The four-time All-Star has played his entire nine-year career with the Mets, going 82-57 with a 2.52 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 10.9 K/9 rate.

When healthy, he's been the best pitcher in baseball of late. Unfortunately, injuries kept him out for large chunks of the season in 2021 (elbow, forearm ailments) and 2022 (stress reaction on his right scapula). He made only 27 starts over the past two years.

That, in turn, presents a big risk for the Rangers as they look to return to relevance. However, a healthy deGrom could dominate the American League and significantly strengthen a rotation in need of help.

The Texas Rangers have added a big piece to their roster with the signing of Jacob deGrom.

The starting pitcher has agreed to a five-year deal with the Rangers, the club announced Friday. It is worth $185 million and has a sixth-year option that could make the total deal worth $222 million, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan.

DeGrom had $53 million remaining on his initial five-year contract with the New York Mets, but he decided to opt out of the final two seasons in search of a better deal.

Mike Puma of the New York Post reported the Mets never made a final offer to the starter.

The two-time Cy Young winner will now get a fresh start after spending the nine years of his career with the Mets.

A shoulder issue limited deGrom to just 11 starts in 2022, finishing the year 5-4 with a 3.08 ERA and 0.746 WHIP. He added 102 strikeouts in just 64.1 innings. Though effective on the mound, the missed time is a significant issue after an elbow injury held the starter to just 15 starts in 2021.

He still thrived when healthy with a 7-2 record, 1.08 ERA and 146 strikeouts. His 0.554 WHIP would be the best in MLB history if he had enough innings to qualify.

Even before this historic production, the 34-year-old finished 2020 with a 4-2 record and 2.38 ERA, leading the league with 104 strikeouts in just 68 innings. It was enough to finish third in Cy Young voting after winning the award the previous two seasons.

From 2018-21, the right-hander had a 1.94 ERA in 91 starts with a 0.88 WHIP and 12 strikeouts per nine innings.

It only added to deGrom's resume after he won the 2014 Rookie of the Year award and helped the Mets reach the World Series in 2016.

The continued production shows he can be a difference-maker for his new team at the top of the rotation, putting the Rangers one step closer to playoff contention.

Texas was just 68-94 last season, marking the sixth straight year without a postseason appearance. The team should still improve with the addition of a true ace, turning around a pitching staff that ranked 12th in the American League in ERA last season.

New York still has Max Scherzer under contract to help handle the loss of deGrom, but the rotation should take a step back after last year's success.

Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager is viewed as the player who could benefit the most from MLB's ban on infield shifts beginning in 2023.

Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated provided detailed analysis of the upcoming change Monday, noting no hitter in the league had more hard-hit ground-ball outs into the shift (71) than the Rangers infielder last season.

Seager faced a shift 93 percent of the time in 2022, a jump of 16 percentage points from 2021, and his .176 batting average on hard-hit grounders was a career-low mark, per Verducci.

The analysis also showed he was one of the most unlucky players when it came to line drives that turned into outs because of the shift along with the Philadelphia Phillies' Kyle Schwarber.

Seager signed a 10-year, $325 million contract with the Rangers last December after spending the first seven seasons of his MLB career with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The 28-year-old North Carolina native hit a career-high 33 home runs, but his OPS dropped to .772, his worst full-season mark since reaching the majors in 2015. His OPS across his final two years in L.A. was .926.

He was a 4.5-win player (via FanGraphs) despite the significant impact of the shift on his ability to get on base.

The ban on the shift creates a lot of intrigue about what level of production Seager can provide. The new rule mandates two infielders on each side of second base and forces the infielders to line up on the infield dirt.

The three-time All-Star could end up in the MVP conversation if his power and defensive numbers remain strong to pair with a likely increase in his batting average and on-base percentage.

That's great news for the Rangers, who own a fearsome top half of the order with Seager, Marcus Semien, Nathaniel Lowe, Adolis García and Jonah Heim.

The rest of the lineup could use upgrades before the 2023 campaign gets underway, though.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers all have free-agent outfielder Mitch Haniger on their radar, according to MLB Network's Jon Morosi.

Haniger was limited to 58 games in 2022. He hit 11 home runs with 34 RBI and slugged .429 at the plate.

Having non-tendered Cody Bellinger, the Dodgers might view Haniger as a fallback should their rumored pursuit of Aaron Judge fall short.

As much as signing the American League Most Valuable Player would help, L.A. doesn't need a whole lot to address an offense that already includes Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Will Smith.

For the Angels and Rangers, they could sign arguably the second-best right fielder on the market, one who's already familiar with the American League West after spending five years with the Seattle Mariners.

Texas tried spending its way to contention in 2022 by signing Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, Jon Gray and Martín Pérez. A 68-94 finish showed how much work the front office has to do to strengthen the roster.

The Angels, meanwhile, are still waiting on the potential one-time top prospect Jo Adell showed in the minors to materialize in MLB. Adell has a .215 on-base percentage in 161 games so far.

Haniger has been a steady presence at the plate. The 2018 All-Star has a career .811 OPS and 123 OPS+ since hitting the big leagues in 2016.

Judge is clearly the crown jewel of free agency, but his price tag automatically eliminates a number of possible suitors. Haniger represents a cost-effective alternative while providing plenty of value on the field.