Texas Rangers Drop In MLB Power Rankings With Ace Struggling of Late

Despite getting off to a strong start this season, the Texas Rangers are coming off easily their worst stretch of the young year.

This past week, the Rangers went 1-5 and lost both of their series to the Chicago Cubs and Seattle Mariners.

While losing to the talented Cubs isn’t too bad, being swept by a division rival is never a good thing.

The offense continues to be an area of concern for Texas, who were held to three runs or fewer in four of their six games last week.

There is a ton of talent in the batting order for the Rangers, and it should only be a matter of time before they turn it around. Unfortuntely, the lack of production has contributed to some losses of late. 

However, this past week also created a bit of a concern for one of the key members of the team.

Will Leitch of MLB.com recently dropped the Rangers in his power rankings from fifth to ninth after a tough week. Furthermore, the performance of Jacob deGrom early on has raised some concerns.

“Even with that start, his ERA is a respectable 4.30. But seeing deGrom putting up less than a strikeout an inning is ... disconcerting.”

While it is great to see deGrom back on the mound for Texas, the performances so far haven’t been up to his caliber.

However, considering he has missed so much time in recent years and is hoping to finally put together a full season, a slow start and some bumps along the road are to be expected.

After a strong start to the season against the Boston Red Sox, the last two starts for the 36-year-old haven’t been great.

Against the Tampa Bay Rays, he allowed four runs on eight hits in 5.2 innings. He followed that up with another poor performance against the Mariners, in which he allowed three runs in four innings of work.

In both starts, he has allowed multiple home runs, which is extremely uncommon for him. Furthermore, he has struggled to strike people out, which has always been a great strength in his game.

Due to his age and injury history, there is reason to be concerned about a couple of bad starts in a row for the former two-time National League Cy Young.

Despite some struggles from their ace, the Rangers are still looking like one of the best teams in the American League to begin the year. However, if they want to truly be great, they will need their star pitcher to be better.