Seattle Mariners' Rival Makes Major Decision That Could Impact Playoff Race
The Seattle Mariners crept back into the playoff race this week, picking up two games on the Houston Astros in the American League West race. At 4.5 games back with 21 games to play, there's a sliver of hope for the M's, who also have a huge series with the Astros looming (Sept. 23-25).
As the American League West comes down to the wire, the Texas Rangers have made a big-time decision that could impact how things finish out.
Jacob deGrom is going to make another rehab start as he comes back from elbow surgery, but then it looks like he'll be back with the big-league club. The Mariners play the Rangers seven more times the rest of the way and are likely to see deGrom at least once. The Astros don't play the Rangers anymore.
The following update comes from the Rotowire fantasy baseball portal:
DeGrom (elbow) will make his next start at Double-A Frisco on Saturday, Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News reports.
ANALYSIS
The Rangers had floated the idea of having deGrom pitch with the big-league club Saturday, but it has now been confirmed that he'll make one more rehab outing. He has yet to complete more than 2.2 innings with Frisco, so the team will likely look to stretch him out a bit more in his final start
deGrom has thrown 6.2 innings over three games on a rehab assignment. He has 10 strikeouts in that time and a 1.35 ERA.
The 36-year-old deGrom is one of the best pitchers of his era. He's won the National League Rookie of the Year (2014), has been to the All-Star Game four times (2015, 2018-19, 2021), has won the National League Cy Young twice (2018-19) and finished in the top 10 in Cy Young voting a total of six times.
He finished at 2-0 with a 2.67 ERA last season in six starts for Texas before getting injured.
He left the Mets after nine years heading into 2023, signing a five-year, $185 million contract with Texas. Unfortunately, injuries have been part of the story of the later part of his career. He made just 15 starts in 2021, 11 in 2022 and the six in 2023.
With him back in the fold, even in shortened outings, life just got that much harder for the Mariners.
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