The Texas Rangers recently made a huge signing with ace Jacob deGrom, and they’re keeping the streak going with another pitcher reportedly added.
The Texas Rangers are undergoing some serious development this offseason. They recently signed Jacob deGrom to a massive five-year contract worth $185 million, and they’ve reportedly come to an agreement with Andrew Heaney too, per FanSided’s MLB insider Robert Murray.
The contract will reportedly be two years and worth $25 million with an opt-out. Heaney most recently played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and had a successful season with an ERA of 3.10, batting average against of .214 and WHIP of 1.09.
He hasn’t had quite the same success over the entire course of his career, but if he performs the way he did in 2022 next season, he’ll be a great asset to the team. He has clear potential, and he and deGrom could definitely be great additions to the team that’ll make the rotation much more stable.
Overall, Texas can expect to have an improved rotation for 2023.
The Rangers’ rotation will likely have big improvements in 2023 after adding Jacob deGrom and Andrew Heaney
The Rangers had a rough time in 2022 with their rotation, ranking among the entire league with the ninth-worst ERA (4.22), 14th-worst opponent batting average (.247) and seventh-worst WHIP (1.34). While those results still aren’t favorable, they are up from the season prior. In 2021, Texas had the eighth-worst ERA (4.79) and sixth-worst OBA (.256). Their WHIP took a turn for the worst, but overall, the rotation had solid improvements.
They’re likely to have decent improvements from deGrom alone (if he remains healthy) considering he’s one of the best pitchers in the league. It’d get even better with Heaney at his fullest potential, and it’ll put them much closer to being contenders.
Last season, they made evident progress to the lineup. In 2021, they had one of the worst lineups in the league with the second-worst batting average (.232), worst on-base percentage (.294), third-worst slugging percentage (.375) and worst OPS (.670). Each area fell much closer to league average this season, with their slugging percentage being above average.
The team is truly coming together through a lot of growth, and they could become sneaky contenders over the next few seasons if they continue to sign big.