SURPRISE, Ariz. - The Rangers decided to announce Jacob deGrom as their Opening Day starter on Friday. The determining factor: Like everything else these days, it made for a nice social media post.
As part of a last-minute marketing initiative from Major League Baseball, teams were asked to withhold until Friday morning the announcement of the opening starter. Then, with a flourish, starters for all 15 openers were announced with a press release complete with Instagram and Twitter graphics. As if there had been any mystery about whom the Rangers wanted to face Philadelphia on Thursday.
These 30 guys will get the ball on #OpeningDay! pic.twitter.com/e1I2AEAi2y
— MLB (@MLB) March 24, 2023
Since the day the team signed him to a five-year, $185 million contract, deGrom had been the plan. The issue was simply whether he would be built up enough after a slow start to the spring. And, quite frankly, that may not be answered completely until deGrom makes his final start of the spring Saturday against San Diego. He has only made one “A” game start to date and thrown only 34 pitches in a game environment.
But the influencing must go on.
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“We’re excited about announcing him,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “I know it’s an honor for him. We had to hold him back a little bit [at the start of spring training], but we think he’s good to go. We’re not looking for him to take us real deep into the game. We have an off day the next day, so we can cover the innings. It just makes all the sense the world.”
He could throw up to 60 pitches on Saturday, which would put deGrom in position to potentially throw about 75 in Thursday’s opener. Under a best-case scenario, that might get the Rangers five innings worth of work. The Rangers are likely to have Cole Ragans and Dane Dunning available to pitch multiple innings behind him. The Rangers are scheduled to face Philadelphia’s Aaron Nola.
Bochy also announced the rest of the order for the rotation - though there was never any doubt about who the bodies would be, just where they might pitch. Nathan Eovaldi will pitch the second game and Martín Pérez the third. Jon Gray will start the series opener against Baltimore and Andrew Heaney will follow him.
This will be the fourth opening-day start of deGrom’s career. He started three consecutive for the New York Mets from 2019-21. He didn’t allow a run in any of them, pitching 17 scoreless innings, allowing nine hits and striking out 25. He threw 77 pitches in six innings against Philadelphia in his last Opening Day start in 2021. He threw 72 and 93 pitches in his other Opening Day outings.
Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant
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