Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager is back in action after recovering from offseason hernia surgery.
With Cy Young winners on the shelf until the second half, the story of the 2024 Texas Rangers might come down to how they fare until the reinforcement arms come.ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers come into the 2024 season with the potential for one of the most intriguing starting rotations in baseball, but it’s also one that seems to have been put together using a bit of smoke and mirrors despite many of the same hurlers returning from last season’s World Series run.
The most expensive pitcher on the Rangers’ payroll won’t even figure into the equation until after June at the earliest, as Max Scherzer recuperates from offseason back surgery. The next most expensive pitcher, Jacob deGrom, is rehabbing the second Tommy John surgery of his career and isn’t due back until around August. Then there’s the team’s largest free agent expenditure from over the winter, Tyler Mahle, who is eyeing July as a potential return date from his own Tommy John surgery.
In particular, Montgomery’s performance in the ALCS against the Astros, shouldering 2.1 scoreless innings in a pennant-clinching Game 7 and allowing just two runs total in 14 ⅓ innings in that series, was the stuff that will have a section dedicated in the World Series documentaries. But a reunion has proven to be too pricey for a team that committed half-a-billion dollars to their middle infield two years ago and picked up another quarter-million in rotation pieces last year.
With deGrom, Scherzer and Mahle out recovering from various surgeries, the Texas starting depth was looking fairly thin, especially with the lack of development from the arms on the farm. Montgomery would have fit the bill nicely, but so does Lorenzen and he comes at a much lower cost. Once the reinforcements arrive, the once thin pitching depth that the Rangers come into the season with would suddenly offer a lot of different scenarios, which is something Texas used to their advantage last October and it earned them the franchise’s first championship.
Perhaps the team’s No. 2 starter in the first half will be Dunning, who manager Bruce Bochy called the team’s most valuable pitcher in 2023. After stepping in for deGrom, Dunning, citing a new stance and positioning on the mound, was able to parlay that into being one of the team’s most consistent starters, going 10-7 in the role with a 3.55 era. He also contributed three scoreless appearances in the World Series out of the ‘pen.
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