Rangers Notes: Without Nathan Eovaldi, Texas Can Turn to These Options

Nathan Eovaldi missing Monday’s game due to left side discomfort may be nothing for the Texas Rangers. Or, it may be something.

Texas went the abundance of caution route by scratching him from his scheduled start and sending him to get scans of the area. Rangers manager Skip Schumaker didn’t have updates before the game. After the game he said that Eovaldi was day-to-day with left side discomfort. Texas can wait two more days before putting him on the 15-day injured list and back-date it to Monday.

The Rangers clearly hope it doesn’t come to that.

Eovaldi has been placed on the injured list in each of his first three seasons with the Rangers. Those stretches have ranged from the minimum time to a couple of months. That longer stretch was at the end of last season when he had a rotator cuff issue and a pair of sports hernias. Texas had starting pitching depth then.

Now? The Rangers have options.

The easiest is Jacob Latz, who flipped into the rotation when Jacob deGrom had neck stiffness in March. He threw four scoreless innings. He has experience starting and he moved into the rotation last year for injury. But there’s a wrinkle now — he’s one of the pitchers Texas is relying on to close games. He may be more important in high leverage now.

The other option on the 26-man roster is Cal Quantrill, who has been used as a multi-inning reliever. He was a starting pitcher each of the last four seasons and the Rangers signed him for situations like this. As a short-term option for a couple of starts, Texas could do worse.

Those may be the only options because Texas doesn’t have good options at Triple-A. Austin Gomber started for Colorado last year but has a 7.94 ERA at Round Rock. Jose Corniell, who is on the 40-man roster, just returned from a late start to spring training. Other 40-man options that haven’t debuted with the Rangers include David Davalilo, Winston Santos and Leandro Lopez.

Cody Bradford and Jordan Montgomery are both on the 60-day injured list and not eligible to be activated.

So, what will the Rangers do if Eovaldi can’t go? The good news is they have time to figure it out. His next scheduled turn isn’t until Sunday in Houston.

Dylan Dreiling’s Big Week

Outfielder Dylan Dreiling is the second Rangers minor leaguer to earn a player of the week honor as he was named the Texas League player of the week on Monday. He’s the first true prospect to win an award this year. The other winner was veteran Cal Quantrill, who won Pacific Coast pitcher of the week honors with Triple-A Round Rock.

Dreiling is a Top 30 prospect who had a huge week for the RoughRiders. He batted .368 with four home runs, eight RBI and 19 total bases. He only played five games last week.

He enters this week as a .300 hitter. Texas selected him as its second-round pick in the 2024 MLB draft out of Tennessee. This is his third pro season and that .300 average would be a career high by 74 points if he maintained it. If he keeps tracking like this, he could be at Triple-A by late summer.

Rangers Will Always Have 2023

The Diamondbacks will always be the team the Rangers beat to win the 2023 World Series. But the Rangers haven’t had much success against Arizona historically.

Aside from the World Series, the only other time Texas has beaten the Diamondbacks in a season series was in 2021, when the Rangers went 3-1 in 2021. Entering this series, Texas was 1-5-3 against Arizona since 2013 and the Rangers had dropped nine of the last 13 regular-season meetings with the Diamondbacks since May of 2023.

But, when it mattered most, the Rangers went 4-1 against the Diamondbacks and won a title.

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