Spring Quote From Rangers Ace Sheds Light on How He Returned to Superstar Form

The Texas Rangers have surprised Major League Baseball with the strength of their pitching so far this season, battling through injury to be one of the best staffs in the league.

This past Thursday showed just that against the Houston Astros, with the Rangers claiming victory in an absolutely epic battle between two aces in Jacob deGrom and Hunter Brown.

For as good as Brown was for the hated in-state rivals, deGrom was even better.

And for this team, he looks like one of the stories of the season right now.

Over his first nine starts of the campaign, deGrom has an ERA of 2.29 and a WHIP of 0.980, sporting a 4-1 record with 53 strikeouts and just 11 walks in 51 innings pitched.

For the first time since signing with Texas on a huge contract nearly three years ago, deGrom looks like the Cy Young-quality ace they signed him to be.

Entering the season, deGrom had made a total of just nine starts for the team in his first two years.

Having already matched that total now in 2025, it looks like he has been worth the wait.

How Has deGrom Turned Things Around For the Rangers in 2025?

ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan shared a quote the two-time National League Cy Young winner delivered during the spring which could explain why he has had such a resurgence.

"I have to look at it like 'hey, I can pitch at that velocity [from 2018],'" deGrom told Passan ahead of the season. "It is less stress on your body. You get out there and you're throwing pitches at 100 miles an hour for however many pitches it is -- it's a lot of stress. It's something I'm going to have to look into -- using it when I need it, backing off, and just trusting that I can locate the ball."

deGrom reached heights during his back-to-back NL Cy Young campaigns in the late 2010s with the New York Mets that baseball has not seen in some time, but throwing the ball triple digits every inning was never going to be sustainable.

The star is still a power pitcher and his velocity during Thursday's eight scoreless innings sat around 98 mph, but it seems he has learned he does not have to put everything into every throw.

This is the version that is going to keep deGrom on the field, which Texas has had the pleasure of experiencing so far during his tenure.

He's proving to be beyond capable of still carving up opposing lineups, even while taking a few ticks off the radar gun.

If deGrom truly has found something where he can not only remain healthy for a full season but still produce at rates close to the best version of himself, this could be a scary sight for the rest of the league.

Rangers fans are finally getting to see the superstar version of deGrom they've longed-for now for years.

It seems the right-hander is committed to continuing to show that version of himself.

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