Rangers’ plan to keep Jacob deGrom ‘fresh’ could include using the IL to skip starts, says manager Bruce Bochy

Can the Texas Rangers Return to the Postseason in 2025?

After winning the World Series in 2023 and missing the playoffs last season, the Texas Rangers are looking to return to the postseason in 2025. A big part of the success they’d like to achieve will require Jacob deGrom, who is looking to log a full season following his return from Tommy John surgery.

deGrom made just six starts in 2023 before the elbow injury that needed surgery caused him to miss the rest of the year. He came back late last season to make three starts, pitching to a 1.69 ERA with 14 strikeouts in 10 ⅔ innings. So far this spring, he’s worked two perfect innings with three strikeouts in the six batters he’s faced.

Manager Bruce Bochy on Wednesday pointed out that while deGrom “looks really, really good,” the Rangers will continue to take it easy with him and even get creative during the regular season in saving his bullets.

“We’re gonna have him at the back end of the rotation to start the season, so when he goes in there, we have those days off. So for his first five starts, he’ll have that extra day off,” Bochy told Foul Territory. “We’ll just try to watch his workload. He’s a key for our success and we know it, so we’ve gotta take care of him and try to get as many starts as we can.”

While deGrom is “planning on making all his starts,” Bochy said, the team will get him extra rest whenever possible.

“Now, during the season, if he has to skip a start or put him on the IL to miss a couple starts to keep him fresh, we’ll do that,” Bochy said.

If your ears perked up at Bochy’s suggestion that the Rangers can just put deGrom on the injured list to rest him, you’re not wrong. To be clear, they can’t do that. Former Mets general manager Billy Eppler was suspended for the 2024 season due to improper use of the injured list after an investigation revealed the “deliberate fabrication of injuries (and) the associated submission of documentation for the purposes of securing multiple improper Injured List placements during the 2022 and 2023 seasons.”

In order to place a player on the injured list, said player must have an actual injury. In the case of deGrom and his arm, of course, it seems pretty easy for the Rangers to justify stints on the IL at different times in the season. Keep in mind how often his arm has felt painful over the past five seasons, not to mention his age (37 in June) and the fact that he’s still not far removed from major surgery. This is probably simply a case where Bochy said a little too much, even if the Rangers might be fully justified in putting deGrom on the IL multiple times this season.