The Texas Rangers will get quite the midseason boost in the quest to repeat as World Series Champions.
The team will await the respective returns of starting pitchers Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer in 2024, and the timeline for that is projected to be around midseason, per ESPN.
deGrom confirmed that he and Scherzer expect to be re-joining the team around the trade deadline at the Rangers fanfest celebration and said that he is feeling pretty healthy.
"My arm's feeling really good," deGrom said, per ESPN. "It's just what is smart. You don't want to push it because you want to continue to pitch here for the next however many years. So that's where we've got to kind of take a look at what is the best plan moving forward, whenever that time comes."
Scherzer said that he had been able to have a successful initial recovery period following his offseason surgery to remove a herniated disc in his lower back.
"Now it's just in the stage of just building back up of where I can get back into it and at the same time [figuring out] how to keep the arm primed as you're navigating something where the biggest concerns are bending, lifting, twisting," Scherzer said.
Scherzer was able to make it through the Rangers World Series run in 2023. deGrom, on the other hand, wasn't as lucky. He injured his elbow in April and underwent Tommy John surgery, ending his season.
The two hurlers will likely have at least some adjustment period after returning, but the high ceiling potential for each is worth the wait. deGrom is a two-time Cy Young winner, four time All-Star and possesses a career ERA of 2.53 and a 84-57 record.
Sherzer has three Cy Young award's, eight All-Star nods and a record of 214-108 with a 3.15 ERA. While both are in the later stages of their careers, they still will be excellent rotation pieces for this talented Rangers team.
Texas will need to navigate a significant portion of the season without the dynamic starters but the duos imminent return sets the Rangers up to be a dangerous force come the postseason.
