Nathan Eovaldi has been one of the best pitchers in baseball this year for the Texas Rangers. Unfortunately, the former Boston Red Sox ace’s season is likely over.
Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young announced on Tuesday that Eovaldi has a right rotator cuff strain, which will likely cause him to miss the rest of the season.
This is a devastating blow for Texas, as Eovaldi was having the best year of his career. In 22 starts this season, the 35-year-old righty was 11-3 with 4.3 WAR, a 1.73 ERA and a 0.85 WHIP.
The Rangers, who improved to 67-67 with a 7-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday, will have to soldier on without their best pitcher. They entered play on Tuesday 5.5 games out of a playoff spot in the American League — a deficit that will be even tougher to overcome without Eovaldi. According to FanGraphs, their odds of making the postseason are just 7.4%.
Eovaldi’s injury seemingly came out of nowhere, as he’d just thrown seven innings of one-run ball in his most recent start on Friday. He’d shown no signs of slowing down, going 7-0 with a 1.56 ERA and a 54:9 K/BB ratio over his last nine outings.
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Unfortunately, Eovaldi has been fairly injury-prone throughout his career, reaching 30 starts just twice in 14 seasons. He already spent time on the injured list earlier this season with a triceps injury and came back strong, but this time a return appears unlikely, especially if Texas falls out of contention.
The two-time All-Star is still under contract through 2027, so he’ll try to pick up where he left off next year if he doesn’t pitch again this season. Still, it’s a disappointing turn in what was shaping up to be an outstanding summer for the 2018 World Series champ.
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Featured image via Jerome Miron/Imagn Images
