Texas Rangers Injured Starter Nathan Eovaldi Ready for Live Batters

The Texas Rangers appear ready for starter Nathan Eovaldi to throw live batting practice next week.

ARLINGTON, Texas — The time has come for Texas Rangers pitcher Nathan Eovaldi to throw live batting practice, according to manager Bruce Bochy.

Eovaldi threw a 40-pitch bullpen session on Friday at Globe Life Field. With no reported issues coming out of the bullpen, that clears the way for Eovaldi to throw to hitters when the Rangers start their three-city, nine-game road trip next week.

“All good,” Bochy said. “He’s making progress.”

“Progress” has been the watchword with Eovaldi for more than a week.

He threw a bullpen session on Tuesday, the equivalent of two innings’ worth of action and emerged from that session clean. That followed two bullpen sessions while the Rangers were on the road last week in Oakland and San Francisco.

So what’s next, assuming the live batting practice goes well Tuesday? That could be a decision point for Eovaldi, though Bochy cautions that it’s as much about what happens the day after the bullpen as it is during the bullpen.

In other words, no setbacks, which to this point Eovaldi hasn’t experienced.

So, it could be a rehab assignment. It could be more batting practice. Or, it could be an activation to the active roster, where the Rangers would use Eovaldi and ramp him up slowly.

“Yeah, we’ll see how it goes,” Bochy said. “Whether he goes down, whether he does (batting practice) again, we’ll see what happens.”

The way the Rangers have pitched in August, they have the luxury of being cautious with Eovaldi.

The additions of Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery have helped the Rangers as a rotation go 10-2 with a MLB-best 2.28 ERA in August, dropping their season ERA from 3.88 to 3.66, which is now the lowest in MLB. The Rangers also have quality starts in eight of the last 10 games and an MLB-high 12 quality starts this month.

Eovaldi’s forearm strain that put him on the injured list on July 30. Before that the Rangers skipped his start during a road series in Houston in an effort to give him more rest.

Eovaldi has made just one start since the All-Star break, throwing six shutout innings on July 18 in a win over Tampa Bay at Globe Life Field. Eovaldi is 11-3 with a 2.69 ERA for the season.

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