5 Greatest Texas Rangers Pitchers of All Time

No pitcher in Texas Rangers history has a higher pitching WAR than Hough, whose 38.4 came from 1980 to 1990. The knuckle-baller served as Texas’ ace during the decade. For most of it, anyway, until No. 4 came along in 1989.

Hough spent his first 11 years with the Dodgers as a reliever and even spent his first two with the Rangers coming out of the bullpen. But in 1982, manager Don Zimmer put him in the rotation where Hough won 113 games with a 3.70 earned-run average.

His best season came in 1985 when he won 13 games with a 1.123 WHIP and a 3.31 ERA. Hough also earned his one and only All-Star appearance the next season.

4. Nolan Ryan (1989-1993)

Sure, you could argue that one of the greatest strikeout pitchers of all time should be higher. And if we included Ryan’s whole career, he certainly would be. We’re going with just the five seasons he spent in Arlington.

Ryan arrived to the Rangers in 1989 at age 42 and immediately booked a trip back to the All-Star Game. He led the Majors in strikeouts (309), strikeouts-per-nine (11.3), hits-per-nine (6.1), and wild pitches (19) while finishing fifth in American League Cy Young voting.

He was the ace for another three seasons, leading the Majors in strikeouts-per-nine in the next two, before calling it a career - a magnificent career - after the 1993 season at age 46.

3. Ferguson Jenkins (1974-75, 1978-81)

Jenkins has already made a list like this before as we ranked him the greatest Chicago Cubs pitcher of all time. He had some good years even after leaving Chicago in 1973.

Jenkins spent the ‘74 and ‘75 seasons with the Rangers and the first of those might have been his second best ever. He won an MLB-high 25 games and led the Majors in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 5-to-1, ultimately finishing second in Cy Young voting.

He then spent two seasons in Boston before returning to Texas for four seasons, one which resulted in a sixth-place Cy Young finish in 1978.

2. Kenny Rogers (1989-95, 2001-02, 2004-05)

Twelve of Rogers’ 20 Major-League seasons were spent with the Rangers, strangely over three different stints. The best of those three came at the end, like Hough and Ryan, in his late 30s and early 40s.

Rogers ranks behind only Hough in pitching WAR with a 31.2 mark. His highest single-season mark came in 1995, the last year of his first stint with Texas.

He went 17-7 with a 3.38 ERA to notch a 5.8 total. Rogers returned to the Rangers in 2000 and 2001 when he was arguably the best player on a couple of last-place finishers.

He spent one season with the Twins before returning to Texas for two years when he picked up his second and third ASG appearances and won two Gold Gloves.

1. Yu Darvish (2012-2017)

While Jenkins, Rogers, and Hough all played longer and Ryan’s four seasons are the same as Darvish’s, we couldn’t not put the phenom here.

Darvish arrived from Japan in 2012 at age 25 and finished third in Rookie of the Year voting and ninth in Cy Young voting. He finished second in Cy Young voting the next year when he led the Majors in hits-per-nine and strikeouts.

Elbow troubles flared in 2014 and kept him out all of 2015. But he’d return and make the All-Star Game again in 2017 before being traded at the deadline to the Dodgers. 

Like Ryan, Darvish was there for a good time, not a long time.