Fastball

Texas Rangers World Series Champion Pitcher Dealing with Injury, Will Have Start Pushed

Things just keep going from bad-to-worse for the Texas Rangers.

Brady Farkas

Texas Rangers pitcher Nathan Eovaldi (17) throws to the plate during the first inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Globe Life Field on July 19.
Texas Rangers pitcher Nathan Eovaldi (17) throws to the plate during the first inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Globe Life Field on July 19. / Raymond Carlin III-USA TODAY Sports
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The World Champion Texas Rangers just keep getting a pile of bad news.

First, they learned recently that young outfielder Evan Carter will likely be out for the rest of the season with injury. Now, they have learned that top-of-the-rotation pitcher Nathan Eovaldi will be out for a bit with an oblique strain.

Per Jim Bowden of 'The Athletic' on social media:

Nathan Eovaldi #TXRangers update: Dr. Keith Meister called it a low grade oblique strain. His next start will be pushed back to this weekend...also keep in mind if he pitches 156 innings he gets a Player Option at $20 million with $3m in player performances per club source

The Rangers can ill-afford injuries given where we are in the calendar, and given where they are in the standings.

They enter play on Monday at 55-63 and 7.5 games back of both the Mariners and Astros in the American League West. Furthermore, they are a whopping 10.0 games back in the wild card race.

As for Eovaldi, he's 8-6 this season with a 3.75 ERA. He's struck out 117 batters in 120.0 innings (21 starts). A two-time All-Star, the 34-year-old Eovaldi is in the 13th year of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Florida Marlins and Rangers. He also pitched in part of one year for the Tampa Bay Rays. Eovaldi helped the Red Sox win the World Series in 2018 in addition to helping Texas in 2023.

The Rangers will take on the Red Sox on Monday night at 7:10 p.m. ET.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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