Rangers sneak in unfortunate injury news into flurry of roster moves
At this point, Texas may have to start taking volunteers from the stands to start games for them soon.
The Texas Rangers can't seem to catch a break when it comes to guys getting hurt. It is quite literally every week, if not more often than that, that another injury happens or, at minimum, a guy that is already injured has a setback.
Before Thursday, Texas already had Cody Bradford, Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, Wyatt Langford, Justin Foscue, Josh Jung, Josh Sborz, and Nathan Eovaldi on the IL, and that isn't even the complete list.
More names were added to the Rangers' training room as not only was Cody Bradford transferred to the 60-day IL, but Jon Gray was put on the injured list with a groin issue.
Texas Rangers: Jon Gray joins growing Rangers IL with a groin injury, Bradford moved to 60-day injured list
We'll start with Gray as his injury is the simplest to explain. According to the Rangers, Gray has a mild groin strain and the hope is that he will be ready to be activated again as soon as he is eligible. Given the Texas training staff's track record this year, fans shouldn't take that as gospel, though. It is truly a shame, too, because Gray has pitched really well in 2024 with a 2.21 ERA in 57 innings of work.
As for Bradford, his case is a little harder to project as his injury is weird to begin with. He was initially put on the IL with back soreness, but it was later revealed that he actually has a stress fracture in his lower rib. Given that the latest update on Bradford was that the fracture itself isn't healing quickly, moving him to the 60-day IL makes a lot of sense as he had to be shut down from throwing as they try to get him healed up.
At the very least, the Rangers did get Dane Dunning back from his rotator cuff injury this week. It may be wise to cover him in bubble wrap for the next few weeks because the Rangers' rotation is in really rough shape at the moment. Gray's injury also means that guys like Owen White and Jack Leiter could get more opportunities even with their struggles in the big leagues.