ARLINGTON, Texas — Texas Rangers ace Jacob deGrom underwent tests Saturday after early exits in two of his past three starts because of tightness in his lower right forearm near his wrist.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said the “same thing cramped up on him again” on Friday night, when deGrom left his start against the New York Yankees with two outs in the fourth inning. That came 11 days after he exited at Kansas City following four hitless innings.
Bochy said before Saturday night’s game that the team was still waiting for the results of the ongoing evaluations on the two-time National League Cy Young Award winner, who as a free agent last December signed a $185 million, five-year contract with Texas.
“We’ll just wait to hear what the doctors say, and we’ll find out if he needs time or not,” Bochy said. “Obviously, we’re being optimistic having gone through this a little already with him.”
Texas has won all six games started by deGrom (2-0), but he has been limited to 30 1/3 innings. He has a 2.67 ERA with 45 strikeouts and four walks.
When deGrom left a game in Kansas City on April 17, the Rangers said the move was precautionary because of wrist soreness. After Friday’s game, Bochy said the decision was again precautionary, and that the right-hander had forearm tightness.
In between those two starts, deGrom struck out 11 batters and allowed one earned run over six innings in a win against Oakland last Sunday.
DeGrom played his first nine big league seasons with the New York Mets. He was plagued by injuries the past two years, when he was limited to 156 1/3 innings over 26 starts.
Before missing the final three months of the 2021 season with right forearm tightness and a sprained elbow, deGrom had a career-low 1.08 ERA over 92 innings. He was then shut down late in spring training in 2022 because of a stress reaction in his right scapula and didn’t make his first big league start until Aug. 2.