The Texas Rangers have been one of the surprise teams in baseball this season. After years of languishing at or near the bottom of the AL West, they sit atop the division. Their pitching staff has been solid all season long, including their big off-season acquisition Jacob deGrom—at least, when he’s been able to take the mound. deGrom, who turns 35 this month, has a 2-0 record with a 2.67 ERA and 0.76 WHIP, striking out 45 batters in 30 and 1/3 innings pitched.
Unfortunately, those will be deGrom’s final stats of the season. He tearfully announced he has damage to his ulnar collateral ligament, and the team will be shutting him down for the rest of this year. He’ll likely miss a portion of the 2024 season, as well.
The Rangers gave deGrom a $185 million contract over five seasons. We’re barely a third of the way into the first year, and he’s already missing a significant amount of time. In most scenarios, this would be a recipe for disaster. But the Rangers did some very smart planning with this deal.
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While deGrom was a prospect with the New York Mets, he had Tommy John surgery on his elbow. This latest injury will be the second time deGrom has elbow surgery, and it will trigger a clause in his contract. Currently, the contract expires in 2027. However, if deGrom undergoes any kind of shoulder or elbow surgery that sidelines him for a long time, the Rangers can add another year onto the end of the contract.
That extra year will have a variable value depending on how well deGrom pitches. It will factor in how many innings he throws throughout the entire contract and where he finishes in Cy Young voting.
In 2018 and 2019, deGrom won the Cy Young, so it’s not completely out of the question that he could earn a ton of money in that final year. But he’ll be coming off another major surgery, which could impact his consistency when he returns.
The Rangers were smart to recognize deGrom’s injury history. Though they obviously want their player to be healthy and pitch well, they’ll likely save themselves millions of dollars by showing some foresight at the negotiating table.