MacKenzie Gore's Texas Rangers jersey number is already part of franchise history

The Texas Rangers officially introduced their sparkly new left-handed pitcher MacKenzie Gore on Thursday afternoon, featuring a look fans haven't seen in over two decades.

At his introductory press conference, Gore sported his Rangers' jersey for the first time with a single-digit number, #1 to be exact, which hasn't been worn on field for Texas since Elvis Andrus was traded prior to the 2021 season.

Gore's jersey number is a small part of Rangers' history

Andrus is perhaps the most recognizable player in franchise history to wear the number one on the back of his jersey but for a position player, espeically a middle infielder, it's completely normal.

Matter of a fact, it's almost an unwritten rule that pitchers are not allowed to wear single-digit numbers. That doesn't stop them though as nine active pitchers are currently wearing a number between 0-9 on the back of their jerseys.

The 26-year-old Gore is part of that short list having worn #1 during his time with Washington from 2022-25. He will however be the first Rangers' pitcher since Rob Bell in 2001, who wore the #6 for a brief period of time after being traded to Texas midseason.

To add to the craziness, Gore will be just the third pitcher in franchise history to wear a single-digit but surprisingly not the first to wear #1, last worn by Jack Jenkins in 1962 when the team was Washington Senators.

Preview: Gore's 2026 stat projections

As a refresher, Gore was acquired by Texas on Jan. 22 in a trade that sent Washington five of the Rangers' top prospects including their second overall player in shortstop Gavin Fien.

He joins an elite rotation alongside Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Jack Leiter. Together they can be argued as one of the best rotations in baseball for this year.

Going into 2026, Gore is projected to be the team's third starter behind deGrom and Eovaldi. According to Baseball Reference, Gore is projected to go 7-12 for Texas in 2026 with a 4.10 ERA, 172 strikeouts, 61 walks and a 1.35 WHIP in 156 innings of work.

That projection is a little lower than his current 162 game average of a 4.19 ERA, 175 innings, 193 strikeouts and 73 walks. In last year's numbers it's even innings-wise but it would be a slighlty better ERA with slightly less strikeouts and even walk numbers.