Rangers ace Jacob deGrom needs elbow surgery, will miss rest of 2023 season

Off to the best start in team history, a postseason appearance becomes a more and more realistic probability for the Rangers. That vision, however, no longer includes expected ace Jacob deGrom. At least not for this year.

A follow-up MRI Tuesday confirmed the Rangers’ worst fears about deGrom’s troublesome elbow: There is a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament. He will require surgery and will be out until at least until the middle of 2024. He had previously been diagnosed with elbow inflammation. Rangers team physician Dr. Keith Meister will perform the surgery.

DeGrom, speaking through tears, struggled to get out words.

“This stinks,” he said, arms crossed and occasionally pausing. “It is not ideal. When you are told you can’t be out there doing something you love, it’s tough. We’ve got a special group of guys here and I want to be able to be out there and help them. It’s a disappointment.”

“The latest pictures show that we’ve gone backwards,” GM Chris Young said. “There is now structural damage. And it is significant as compared to what we saw originally where there was inflammation.”

It will extend deGrom’s long stretch of seasons interrupted by injuries to four. He pitched only 92 innings in 2021 with the Mets due to right forearm tightness and only 64 innings last season due to a stress reaction in his right scapula. He has pitched just 30.1 innings in six starts this season for the Rangers after signing a five-year, $185 million contract in November.

That contract raised eyebrows around the industry because of deGrom’s recent history of injuries, but the Rangers felt it was worth the risk to help propel their offseason plans to overhaul pitching. When healthy, deGrom is “the best pitcher in the world,” GM Chris Young had said, as recently as Monday.

While the Rangers’ starting pitching has been the second best in baseball, deGrom has only had a cameo role. He arrived in spring training with some side stiffness and the Rangers opted to slowly work him in. When he began the season, he was on a restrictive pitch limit. Only four starts in, he left a game at Kansas City with a no-hitter after four innings because of wrist soreness. He returned six days later to pitch six innings in a win against Oakland.

Then, five days later, he came out of a start against the New York Yankees after allowing his first hit in the fourth inning. He was placed on the 10-day IL the next day with what was termed “elbow inflammation.” The Rangers said there was no structural damage to the ligament, following an MRI.

He began throwing bullpens about two weeks later and had thrown five since, most recently last Wednesday in Detroit before heading back to Florida to attend to the birth of his third child. The Rangers said they would re-evaluate him when he returned. When he returned Monday, the club acknowledged his progress had “not been linear” and opted to transfer him to the 60-day IL. It would have made him eligible to return on June 28. But the Rangers also planned a follow-up MRI to see if there had been any changes in the last month.

If a full Tommy John surgery is required, it will be the second of deGrom’s career. He had the first in 2011, less than a year after the New York Mets selected him in the ninth round of the draft.

The Rangers do not have insurance on deGrom’s contract for this year because his recent injury history made it too much of a risk. A significant injury this season is only going to further complicate that possibility. The Rangers have four more years on the deGrom deal with $155 million guaranteed remaining.

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