The Rangers Trade For MacKenzie Gore To Bolster Their Rotation

Gore brings a frontline starter caliber pitcher to the Rangers, who now have a very intriguing trio alongside DeGrom, Eovaldi, and himself. Like we always say for pitching, all these guys need to do is stay healthy, and they’ve all dealt with their fair share of injuries.

Gore is coming off a 4.17 ERA season in which he struck out 27.2% of batters and 185 in total in 159.2 innings this past season. In his arsenal, he has a four-seam fastball, curveball, slider, changeup, and cutter.

The four-seam fastball is Gore’s most used pitch, coming in at a 49.3% usage rate, but only a 20.7% whiff rate, .294 batting average against, and 27 extra-base hits allowed on 1,388 pitches.

Gore’s second most-used pitch is his curveball, at 24%, which has a 35.7% whiff rate, a .217 batting average against, and nine extra-base hits allowed on 675 pitches.

The tertiary pitch in his arsenal is the slider, coming in at a 11.8% usage, .195 batting average against, 40.5% whiff rate, and six extra-base hits allowed on 333 pitches.

The penultimate pitch in Gore’s arsenal is the changeup at 10.3%, which has a 47.2% whiff rate, six extra-base hits allowed, and a .271 batting average against in 289 pitches.

The least used pitch that he has is the cutter, at 4.7%, which had a 40.5% whiff rate, a .200 batting average against, and allowed one extra-base hit in 133 pitches.

Gore throws his fastball 42 and 52% of the time vs lefties and righties, the changeup 12 and 28% of the time vs lefties and righties, and the slider 44 and 1% vs lefties and righties as well. Gore also throws his changeup 0 and 14% of the time vs lefties and righties, and his cutter 1% and 6% of the time vs lefties and righties.

In 2025, Gore was 20th in the league among starting pitchers with a 27.2 strikeout rate, 12th in K/9 at 10.43, and tied for 42nd in Fielding Independent Pitching at 3.74 with Cam Schlittler.

On the other hand, Gore struggled with limiting damage contact as he was in the 19th, 14th, and 20th percentile in Average Exit Velocity, Barrel %, and Hard-Hit %. This is also a pitcher who struggles with command, as he had a 9.3% walk rate this past season.

There are a couple of things to wrinkle out, but Gore’s potential is clearly high. New Texas pitching coach Jordan Tiegs has his work cut out for him and a nice project to fix.

The End Of My MacKenzie Gore Rant

At the end of the day, the Rangers can sport a rotation of DeGrom, Eovaldi, Gore, Leiter, and one of Latz/Rocker, that’s extremely enticing. Texas doesn’t have anywhere close to an upper-echelon farm system, and they didn’t have to give up their top prospect, Walcott. Also, none of the players they gave up are on MLB Pipeline’s or Just Baseball’s Top 100 prospects lists currently, but things can change down the line.

This is a good win-now move for the Rangers, who are set pitching-wise, and now they have to hope to bounce back offensively by potentially adding another bat. Currently, the Rangers’ lineup is expected to be Brandon Nimmo, Wyatt Langford, Corey Seager, Joc Pederson, Jake Burger, Evan Carter, Josh Jung, Josh Smith, and Danny Jansen. Seager is one of the best hitters in the sport when healthy, Langford is legit, Nimmo is still good, and Jung and Carter have all the talent in the world to bounce back. There’s no way that Pederson can be as bad as he was last season, and Burger can improve as well.

One more bat would put the Rangers over the top of my opinion, but overall, acquiring Gore was a step in the right direction for their playoff and division hopes in 2026.