Ex-Red Sox World Series Champ Given 2025 'Ace' Label: 'Most Important Pitcher'

The right-hander continues to dominate into his mid-thirties

Apr 9, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; A general view of Fenway Park before the Boston Red Sox home opener against the Baltimore Orioles. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images / Eric Canha-Imagn Images

A two-time Cy Young Award-winning pitcher has returned to health for the Texas Rangers, but he isn’t the team’s ace.

According to MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry, that honor belongs to a 14-year veteran and former World Series champion with the Boston Red Sox.

“(Jacob) deGrom threw five shutout innings in his 2025 debut against the Red Sox,” Landry wrote.

“But (Nathan) Eovaldi, who has been the staff ace for the last two seasons, threw a 99-pitch shutout against the Reds in his second start of the season and has allowed just two runs in his first 15 innings this year. deGrom, when healthy, is the greatest pitcher in the world. But Eovaldi has been and will continue to be the most important pitcher on the staff, both on and off the field.”

Eovaldi is at the start of his third year with the Rangers after signing with the club in December of 2022.

He won a World Series with Texas in 2023 and made the American League All-Star team that year.

Last season, Eovaldi went 12-8 with a 3.80 ERA and 166 strikeouts in 170 2/3 innings pitched (29 starts).

Through his first two starts of 2025, Eovaldi is 1-0 with a 1.20 ERA, 17 strikeouts, and just seven hits allowed. Eovaldi, 35, seems to be aging like fine wine.

Eovaldi’s Rangers are 5-2 to start the year. They won three out of four versus the Red Sox in the opening series of the season, and they’re looking like a force to be reckoned with in the AL West.

If both Eovaldi and deGrom are healthy by the time fall rolls around, they could form a playoff rotation that no one will want to face.

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