ARLINGTON -- Rangers ace Nathan Eovaldi is going on the injured list, president of baseball operations Chris Young announced on Sunday morning.
Eovaldi left his last start against the Blue Jays on Tuesday night after just two innings with right triceps soreness. The club initially announced that he was removed as a precaution, but it wants to give him as much time as possible to heal up.
“We can backdate it three days with the off-days,” Young said. “With the flexibility in the rotation, we felt like this is the appropriate thing to make sure that we get him right. Structurally, everything looks really good. We took a picture. Everything looks really good. We just gotta get this triceps thing calmed down. We anticipate that he’ll be ready at the end of the 15-day mark.”
Young said Tyler Mahle will start on Tuesday in Tampa. Kumar Rocker will likely be activated from the injured list to start in Eovaldi’s spot on Wednesday, with Jack Leiter rounding it out on Thursday.
Eovaldi’s team-leading 1.56 ERA is ranked second in the Major Leagues behind Kansas City’s Kris Bubic (1.45).
The Rangers' starting rotation has an MLB-leading 2.82 ERA entering Sunday’s matchup with the Cardinals. It’s the lowest mark in franchise history (since 1961) over the club's first 59 games in a season (previously 3.13 in 2023).
Texas starting pitchers also lead the Majors in opponents' OBP (.276), SLG (.339), OPS (.615), WHIP (1.08) and baserunners per 9.0 (9.97), while having allowed three or fewer runs in a franchise-record 21 consecutive games.
The Rangers could go to a six-man rotation when Eovaldi returns, but that’s yet to be determined.
“We’ll figure it out,” Young said. “We'll see what the need is. We'll see how everybody's feeling. We're in a pretty good spot where we have some flexibility with good options, with guys that are all throwing well. We'll determine what the right thing to do is. Sometimes these things work themselves out. So we'll see.”