How One Rotator Cuff Just Redrew the Rangers' Entire September

The Texas Rangers entered this week with a simple plan for the final month: get both co-aces rolling and steal a wild-card spot. That plan took a direct hit when Nathan Eovaldi was placed on the 15-day injured list with a rotator cuff strain — a move team president Chris Young indicated would almost certainly end the right-hander's season.

Eovaldi had been the club's most durable starter, going 10-9 with a 4.21 ERA across 22 starts while carrying the rotation through stretches when Jacob deGrom was managing triceps fatigue. Losing him now is a crushing blow to a staff that could not afford to lose anyone.

The timing could not be worse. Texas sits at 68-70 after 138 games — two games under .500 and second in the AL West, trailing Houston (70-68) by two games and squeezed into a crowded wild-card picture alongside Toronto (68-70). The Rangers have been outscored 606-562 on the season, a -44 run differential that underscores how thin the margins have become.

And the pitching has been trending the wrong direction even before this news. Over the last five games, the club has posted a 5.725 ERA with a 1.581 WHIP — numbers that would be fatal against playoff-caliber lineups. The bullpen, expected to be a pillar of the roster, owns a 4.93 season ERA and a 1.385 WHIP as a unit, recording just one save while blowing two others. Rotation depth has eroded too: Jack Leiter is on the 60-day injured list, and recent weeks have reportedly cost the Rangers Marcus Semien, Evan Carter and Jon Gray for the rest of the season, with Josh Jung currently on the 10-day IL as well.

The immediate plan involves Jacob Latz stepping into Eovaldi's rotation spot, with Caleb Boushley recalled from Triple-A Round Rock to provide length behind him. But the bigger issue is the trickle-down effect: every bullpen arm moves up a role, multiplying pressure on a relief corps that owns a 4.93 season ERA.

There is one bright spot: the bats have picked it up. The Rangers scored 11 runs against the White Sox on Aug. 24, followed with seven more in that series, and opened September with an 8-1 win over Oakland on Tuesday. Texas has scored 55 runs while allowing 52 over that stretch — a positive run differential that shows the offense can carry the load if the pitching keeps games manageable. The lineup's recent OPS of .789 over the last 10 games supports that optimism.

The path forward is steep but not closed. With Eovaldi done, deGrom must stay healthy and dominate, and the rest of the rotation becomes essentially a committee of Latz, Boushley and whoever emerges from the bullpen. The standings say the wild-card door is still open — two games separate the Rangers from a meaningful playoff spot with roughly 24 games remaining.

But the margin for error is now zero. A rotation that leaned on an ace for 130-plus innings has lost that anchor, and Texas' September just got a whole lot harder.