Rangers Place Nathan Eovaldi On IL With Elbow Inflammation
The Rangers announced that right-hander Nathan Eovaldi has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to August 9, due to right posterior elbow inflammation. Fellow righty Ben Peoples has been recalled in a corresponding move.
Details on Eovaldi’s situation are still not clear. He started on Friday and went 5 1/3 innings. His velocity was down, but just a bit. He averaged 92.9 miles per hour on his four-seamer during that outing, after being at 93.6 mph in his previous start. There wasn’t any indication that he had suffered an injury but it appears some inflammation popped up, either during that game or perhaps during a between-starts bullpen session.
More details will surely be forthcoming in time. Regardless, it’s a notable loss for the Rangers. Eovaldi is 36 years old but continues to post solid numbers in the big leagues. He has thrown 132 2/3 innings this year with a 4.21 earned run average. His 24.7% strikeout rate, 5.8% walk rate and 48.8% ground ball rate are all better than average. He has struggled with the home run ball this year, as he has already allowed a career-high 24. SIERA, an ERA estimator that expects home run rates to even out in large samples, has Eovaldi at 3.45 this year.
Ideally, it will be a brief absence for Eovaldi and he can jump right back into the Texas rotation, though it’s worth noting his track record. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2007 and 2016. Since then, he has stayed fairly healthy but it’s normal for him to miss at least some time. This is his sixth straight season making at least 20 starts but he only got to 30 in one of those.
Time will tell if Eovaldi is slated for a long or a short absence. In the meantime, Texas will have a rotation spot to fill. Jacob deGrom, MacKenzie Gore, Kumar Rocker and Cody Bradford currently have four spots. Jack Leiter isn’t eligible to come off the 60-day IL until later this month and he hasn’t yet begun a rehab assignment regardless.
Jordan Montgomery and Cal Quantrill are both in the bullpen but could be candidates to step up for a rotation role until Eovaldi or Leiter come back. Quantrill had a rotation spot from late June to late July but Bradford’s return from the IL got him pushed to the bullpen in recent days. Montgomery was just activated from the 60-day IL recently after working his way back from last year’s Tommy John surgery. He got stretched out during his rehab and just tossed four innings of long relief yesterday.
The Rangers are in a tight playoff race at the moment. They have a 59-59 record, which puts them half a game back of the Astros in the American League West. Texas is currently holding the final A.L. Wild Card spot but they are only a game ahead of the Tigers, with several other teams also in the mix. Losing Eovaldi, even if it’s for a short amount of time, doesn’t help them in that regard.
If this turns out to be any kind of long-term issue, it would obviously be much more notable for the Rangers. 2027 is the last year of Eovaldi’s deal and the final guaranteed season of the deGrom pact. Gore is also slated for free agency after next season. It is potentially a pivot year for the club’s starting group, so it would be quite a noteworthy blow if Eovaldi is slated for any kind of recovery timeline that extends into next year.
Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images