Rangers rotation has been a serious disappointment based on this metric

The one area the Ray Davis ownership group and President of Baseball Operations Chris Young have shown their willingness to invest big bucks in is the Rangers' starting pitching staff. The return-on-investment was lights out in 2025, as the collection of Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Jack Leiter, and others claimed the top ERA in the league with a 3.41 mark.

Unfortunately, 2026 is a new year, and despite having invested heavily once again, the results have been far less successful.

It was unrealistic to expect the Rangers starters to go out and duplicate what was the best statistical season in club history, but the dropoff from 2025 to 2026 has been significant, given what you are paying and all you gave up to secure these elite arms.

You're paying a 38-year-old deGrom $38 million on a 5-year deal worth $175 million. Eovaldi is also being paid handsomely to the tune of $29 million this season in the middle of a three-year $75 million deal. Big Game Nate is also over 35 and on the back side of his career.

You traded away five of your best minor league players to get Gore and put $5.6 million in his coffers for the 2026 season. So the price for Gore comes largely in the enormous amount of assets and potential production in an effort to win now.

You're getting both Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocke on the cheap as pre-arbitration players under team control until 2028, but as very high former first-round picks, they represent a different type of pricey investment.

The rotation hasn't been terrible, but the Rangers need more to justify their investment and compete in the AL West

All five of the Rangers' starting pitchers have ERAs between 3.54 and 4.34. All but Leiter are under 4.00, and Leiter is coming off a gem against the Kansas City Royals. The starters' 3.95 ERA is tied for 12th in the league right now. And they've been healthy, with only Eovaldi missing a start thus far.

We're not here to declare that the rotation has been abysmal and needs to be overhauled (at least, not yet). Still, when you are using such a large percentage of your cap space and tradeable assets to amass your staff, you want to see that group in the top third of the league at worst, and maybe challenging for the best in MLB.

Moreover, you'd like to see at least one of your high-paid veteran horses pitch like a true ace who can stomp out losing streaks and win pitchers' duels, rather than pitch like a mid-rotation innings eater.

Yes, it must be mentioned how wildly inconsistent the hitting has been in support of the staff. However, the bats have been better than they were a year ago - particularly with RISP. Josh Jung looks like a bona fide all-star, Joc Pederson can't stop hitting dingers, and Jake Burger has been the most productive RBI man.

When you put it all together, there is no doubt that Chris Young and Rangers fans want to see more from their high-priced starters, so this team can realize its full potential in a wide-open AL West.

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