Jacob deGrom was not the pitcher he wanted to be in 2026, nor the pitcher the Texas Rangers needed him to be. He was one more season on his contract but is a candidate to be traded.
Jacob deGrom headed into the offseason full of regret and embarrassment, having let down the Texas Rangers yet again in a critical game. They missed out on the postseason by a game, and he could think of 10 of his starts that should have ended differently.
They were part of his worst season in nearly a decade, before his two Cy Young awards with the Mets in 2018 and 2019. He dealt with a variety of ailments, but he wasn’t seeking excuses. He was seeking fixes for 2027.
The Rangers are seeking fixes, too, with the stated goal of getting younger, healthier, more athletic and mentally tougher. President of baseball operations Chris Young laid out those pillars Sept. 28 during the season wrap-up.
Not known at the time, Young said, was if the Rangers would have to get cheaper. No player on the roster will be paid more in 2027 than the $37 million deGrom will pocket. No player will be older than deGrom, who turns 39 next summer.
Trading deGrom would be tricky without the full no-trade protection that he exercised this year at the trade deadline. After two straight seasons with at least 30 starts and with it more likely than not that he will rebound in 2027, keeping him isn’t a bad thing. Not at all.
“The stuff is still really good,” Young said. “We wouldn’t have been there without some of the performances Jacob gave us over the course of the season, especially when we lost other key contributors in the rotation.”
The numbers weren’t nearly as shiny as they were in 2025, as deGrom went 11-11 with a 4.20 ERA. When it comes to the performance-salary ratio, deGrom might be the biggest disappointment on the team. He’s disappointed, too.
He had five starts in which he allowed at least six runs, including his last this season: eight runs in four innings in a must-win game against the Twins in Game 160.
“It’s embarrassing,” he said Sept. 25. “That was terrible.”
But he did make 31 starts and strike out 201 batters in 162 2/3 innings. He did so while nursing various injuries over the final half of the season: first, a sore hip, followed by a triceps issue and a groin strain. He also missed his first start of the season because of neck stiffness.
DeGrom isn’t one to make excuses. He always says after a bad start that he has to make better pitches. However, he was stumped by outings like the one in August at Chicago and his 2026 finale at Minnesota, when he was nickel-and-dimed as opposed to watching ball after ball sail over the fence.
“It just happened over and over,” deGrom said.
Though he doesn’t believe in bad luck, deGrom was unlucky. His batting average on balls in play (BABIP) was .301, 71 points higher than in 2025. His average exit velocity has been the same (89.9 mph) for three straight seasons, and his hard-hit rate rose only marginally from 2025.
Perhaps he’s become too predictable after all of these years and hitters are able to lay off the slider that they believe will dip out of the strike zone. Perhaps the challenge system also keeps them focusing on only fastballs.
DeGrom has an offseason to contemplate his 2026 woes and attempt to fix them. The Rangers, meanwhile, could revisit trading deGrom even though he exercised his no-trade rights just before the trade deadline.
He said then that he wanted to stay with the Rangers because he was convinced they could contend for a postseason spot. A rotation that includes him, Nathan Eovaldi, MacKenzie Gore, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker would make the Rangers contenders in the American League West.
If the Rangers won’t be rebuilding this offseason, their chances of contending improve greatly with deGrom back.
Jeff Wilson, jwilson@alldlls.com