Which Texas Rangers Starter Did Analyst Tab as Team's First-Half MVP?

The Texas Rangers are on the wrong side of the playoff picture in the American League thanks to some deep struggles on offense.

The Rangers rank 28th out of the 30 MLB teams in batting average and on-base percentage while checking in at 26th in slugging percentage.

The struggles have been driven by underperformances from key offseason acquisitions like Joc Pederson and Jake Burger, as well as protracted slumps for entrenched contributors like Marcus Semien and Adolis Garcia.

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All four of those players have OPS marks of .680 or worse, and young emerging star Evan Carter is at least exceeding expectations. Even star shortstop Corey Seager's numbers aren't where they need to be, though he's been scorching hot since the middle of June.

Despite the catastrophic results on offense, the Rangers are still in the AL wild card playoff hunt, and it's due to a pitching staff that has been among the league's elite from Opening Day on.

Texas sits first in the league with a 3.26 ERA, and they're considerably clear of the San Francisco Giants in second place at 3.43.

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It's largely thanks to phenomenal performances from the team's top three starters— Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Tyler Mahle.

Respectively, the trio has ERAs of 2.13, 1.75 and 2.34, though Eovaldi and Mahle have both dealt with injuries throughout the year.

That leaves deGrom as the clear choice for team MVP, at least according to ESPN analyst Bradford Doolittle, who went through and tabbed a choice for each team on Friday.

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"On the bright side, deGrom is back and he's still very much Jacob deGrom ... and seemingly getting better with each outing," Doolittle wrote. "In general, the rotation has been a bright spot for Texas, whose top three performers by AXE are deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Tyler Mahle."

With Mahle currently sidelined and the offense not showing many signs of improvement, it looks like an uphill battle for the Rangers to make the playoffs with so many teams competing for the spots.

But deGrom has done everything he can, both staying healthy and consistently dominating at the age of 37.

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His WHIP is back at its customary sub-1.00 status at a 0.89, and he's remained effective even as his strikeout rate has taken a nosedive.

He's striking out under a batter per inning for the first time since 2016, but he's done so well to limit hard contact that it has been barely noticeable.

There's no question that deGrom has done the most to keep the team afloat, and if they can right the ship and make the playoffs, the Rangers will owe it to the steadiness and excellence that he's provided when the team could have reasonable expected only one of those things.

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