The Texas Rangers have been a pleasant surprise this year. What makes them even scarier is the fact that their biggest weapon is not even active yet.
At 34-19, virtually nobody could've seen this red-hot start by the Texas Rangers coming. The club is currently three games up on the second-place Astros and have a +128 run differential, the best in the entire league.
It hasn't just been one single person putting the team on his back, either. On offense, an infield of Nathaniel Lowe, Marcus Semien, Corey Seager and Josh Jung has been lethal, with each of them hitting above .270 with at least five home runs.
In the outfield, Adolis García has been a home run hitting machine while Leody Taveras has been experiencing a nice resurgence at the plate as well.
What's perhaps most intriguing about this team, is the fact that they are doing so well without their biggest weapon.
Texas Rangers: The team continues to roll even without Jacob deGrom
In the absence of Jacob deGrom, who has been out since late April, the Rangers' rotation has been outstanding, thanks to standout performances from aging veterans who many thought were on a rapid decline.
The current starting-five is Nathan Eovaldi (7-2, 2.42 ERA), Jon Gray (5-1, 2.81), Martín Pérez (6-1, 3.83), Andrew Heaney (4-3, 3.76) and Dane Dunning (4-0, 1.67).
Eovaldi has suddenly seen his stock rise as he has become one of the best pitchers in the game through the first two or so months of the 2023 season. He already has two complete games under his belt and leads the majors in innings with 74.1 thrown.
The fact that these 30-somethings that were on the decline have been able to put together such a solid stretch of starts is astonishing. What will inevitably make this team even more dangerous is the return of deGrom, who is currently on the injured list.
Signed to a massive five-year, $185M contract over this past offseason, the two-time Cy Young Award winner made just six starts before going down with forearm soreness. In that time, he looked like vintage deGrom, posting a 2.67 ERA, 1.57 FIP and 161 ERA+ in 30.1 innings of work. In that time, he struck out 45 batters (13.4 per nine) and walked just four. His return to the rotation will catapult this group from "great" to "incredible".
