Rangers’ Nathan Eovaldi Likely Won’t Return in 2025
Nathan Eovaldi is likely done for the year.
The 35-year-old righty isn’t expected to return this season after being diagnosed with a right rotator cuff strain, Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young announced Tuesday. It marks the end of his remarkable 2025 campaign, led by his MLB-leading 1.73 ERA among pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched.
Eovaldi looked completely dialled in during what’ll now be considered his final start of the season, throwing seven innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts against the Cleveland Guardians on Aug. 22. But he felt discomfort in the days following that strong outing, ultimately prompting an MRI.
If he doesn’t throw another pitch in ‘25, the two-time All-Star will have made 22 starts in the first season of a three-year, $75-million contract that brought him back to Texas last winter. On top of his sparkling ERA, he also posted a 2.79 FIP and a 21.8 percent strikeout-to-walk rate difference, worth 3.8 fWAR – the second-highest of his career.
“Obviously, it’s a big blow,” Young told reporters Tuesday, including MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry. “He’s been just a tremendous teammate and competitor for us all year long. We hate to see this happen to somebody who’s been so important to the organization, but it seems par for the course with how some of the season has gone. So hate it for Evo, hate it for the team.”
Losing Eovaldi for likely the rest of the season is a massive blow for a 67-67 Rangers squad, which enters Wednesday’s slate 4.5 games back of the Seattle Mariners for the final AL wild-card seed. To make a surprising late-season surge, they’ll have to carry on without the help of their best overall pitcher.
Considering the veteran hurler already missed a few weeks earlier this season because of right elbow inflammation, knowing that he probably won’t be able to help his team the rest of the way has added an extra layer of disappointment.
“I want to be able to go out there and take the ball,” Eovaldi said. “I try to do it and take a lot of pride in being able to go every five days. To not be able to do that, and again, to have the outcome that we have now, it’s very tough for me. You always feel like there’s some way to be able to prevent an injury from happening, and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do that.”
It’s truly a shame, given the sensational run that Eovaldi had been on as of late. Over his last nine starts, the 6-foot-2 righty had pitched to a 1.56 ERA – third-lowest among qualified major league starters since the start of July – and 3.23 FIP with 54 strikeouts and only nine walks.
While he hadn’t logged enough innings to become a major threat in the AL Cy Young race, which is currently a two-horse sprint between Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet, it had certainly been an award-worthy campaign.
“The season that I was having, you start to feel the vibes around the clubhouse, in the stadium, and everybody gets excited when you’re going out there taking the field,” Eovaldi said. “I’m not trying to just achieve this for myself, but for the Rangers and for the team. Whenever you get that kind of love and support from your teammates, that’s what you’re playing for, right? Again, to have that kind of thing taken away and stopped now, it’s tough.”
The Rangers have been overwhelmed by injuries this season, particularly of late, with Eovaldi joining Evan Carter (wrist fracture) and Marcus Semien (foot fracture) as players ruled out with season-ending injuries in the last week. Others currently sidelined include Jake Burger, Sam Haggerty, Cody Bradford, Tyler Mahle, Jon Gray, Chris Martin, Cole Winn and Josh Sborz.
Needless to say, Texas has an uphill battle to compete for a postseason spot after buying ahead of last month’s trade deadline.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @Hall_Thomas_
Photo: Adam Moss. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.