Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jon Gray suffered a wrist fracture in his throwing arm after being struck by a line drive off the bat of Michael Toglia in his team’s spring training game Friday.
Gray took the come-backer off his throwing arm in the fourth inning against Colorado, and was forced to leave the game shortly thereafter. “Not good news, not good news,” manager Bruce Bochy told reporters. “It’s terrible. I feel awful for him, to be this close to getting the season going. It’s just not good news. I’ll get back in there and find out more, but right now, there is a fracture.”
Currently in the final season of a 4 year, $56M contract, Gray was expected to eat significant innings for the Rangers in 2025. After going 5-6 with a 4.47 ERA across 23 appearances in 2024, his season was ultimately cut short due to a foot injury which required surgery. There’s currently no timeline for Gray to return to baseball activities at the moment.
Texas’ pitching staff has been battered this week as in addition to Gray’s injury, Cody Bradford and Tyler Mahle are also both dealing with injuries which puts their status for the start of the season up in the air as well.
Bochy noted that non-roster invitees Patrick Murphy and Adrian Houser are potential options to get stretched out and contribute multiple innings to kick off the season. Young arms such as Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker could also see extended looks in prominent roles in the rotation should Gray, Mahle, and Bradford be sidelined for a large stretch of the spring.
Texas likely would have liked to slow play Rocker’s development a bit more as his ugly 22.85 spring ERA suggest he may still need some seasoning in the minors. That being said, Rocker allowed three runs on four hits and two walks while striking out two over 2.1 innings in his most recent spring start against the Padres, so there are signs that he could be turning things around.
The Rangers will have just under 2 weeks to finalize their rotation before opening their regular season at home against the Boston Red Sox on March 27th.
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