Texas Rangers Could See Reunion with Hall of Famer in Best Case Scenario

Re-signing a future Hall of Fame pitcher would be the best case scenario for the Texas Rangers.

Jul 30, 2024; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher Max Scherzer (31) pitches against the St. Louis Cardinals during the second inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images / Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

The Texas Rangers are just two years removed from their first World Series Championship in franchise history.

The team missed the postseason entirely in 2024, but it could just be a part of manager Bruce Bochy's every-other-year magic, something that we will find out for sure in just a few months.

The franchise brought back veteran starter Nathan Eovaldi earlier this offseason on a three-year, $75 million contract, but has otherwise been mostly quiet on additions to their starting rotation.

They could change that, however, if they decided to re-sign future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer, which would be the best-case scenario for the club over the remainder of the offseason.

The Rangers acquired Scherzer in a trade with the New York Mets ahead of the 2023 MLB trade deadline, and the veteran played a big role in helping the team reach the top of the mountain for the first time.

2024 did not go as well for Scherzer, making only nine starts and pitching only 43 1/3 innings with 40 strikeouts and a 3.95 ERA, but having the veteran at the back end of the rotation could go a long way to making it an even deeper unit.

As things stand, Eovaldi is serving as the ace with Jacob deGrom, Jon Gray, Tyler Mahle, and Cody Bradford projected to round out the rotation. Adding Scherzer to the mix would allow the team the flexibility of using a six-man rotation, limiting the amount of workload on all of the rotation's arms, and potentially keeping them all healthy and on the field much more than they were in 2024.

Eovaldi led the team in innings pitched in 2024 with 170 2/3, while no other pitcher qualified for the ERA title, and only Andrew Heaney joined Eovaldi at 150 or more innings pitched with 160.

Texas needs more depth in their rotation to pick up the slack when deGrom inevitably goes down with an injury (he has made only 35 starts since the beginning of 2021 and is entering his age-37 season), and Scherzer could be just the piece the team needs to fill in as that depth.