With just over two weeks left to go in the regular season, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:
1. deGrom returns:
Jacob deGrom will pitch in the big leagues for the first time in more than a year when the Rangers activate him from the 60-day IL to face the Mariners in Seattle at 7:10pm local time. The 36-year-old is on the shortlist for the most dominant pitchers of the 21st century when healthy, but he’s struggled to stay on the mound in recent years. Dating back to 2018, deGrom sports a 2.08 ERA (191 ERA+) and 2.11 FIP with an eye-popping 35.6% strikeout rate. That dominance has come across just 108 starts, however, and things have gotten more drastic in recent years; while deGrom boasts a 2.03 ERA (198 ERA+) and 1.59 FIP with a comical 43.2% strikeout rate since the start of the 2021 season, that encompasses just 32 starts and 186 2/3 innings of work.
The right-hander will only get a few opportunities to pitch in the majors before the season comes to a close, but it’ll still be exciting for not only Rangers fans but baseball fans as a whole to have arguably the league’s best pitching talent on the mound again. The Rangers will need to make corresponding 40-man and active roster moves prior to deGrom’s start, although the former can be achieved by moving Corey Seager to the 60-day IL ahead of his impending sports hernia surgery.
2. Fitzgerald to undergo MRI:
In what has largely been another disappointing season for the Giants, the emergence of Tyler Fitzgerald as their regular shortstop has been a bright spot. The club’s fourth-round pick in the 2019 draft, Fitzgerald made his MLB debut last year and opened the season as a utility option. The versatile hitter, who will celebrate his 27th birthday over the weekend, has taken on a larger role in recent months and pulled it off with aplomb. In 49 games since being installed as the club’s regular shortstop, Fitzgerald boasts a huge .304/.356/.571 slash line 12 homers, 13 doubles, and ten stolen bases in 13 attempts.
Given Fitzgerald’s emergence as a top contributor, it was a worrying sign for fans in San Francisco when he was removed from yesterday’s game after just three innings. As noted by Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle, Fitzgerald told reporters that his back locked up on him before the game began and worsened through the early innings. The shortstop added that he wasn’t particularly concerned about the situation given that he deals with similar back issues “every year,” but nonetheless noted that he’s set to undergo an MRI today.
3. NL Wild Card race heats up:
The race for the third NL Wild Card spot figures to get very interesting this weekend as the two most likely clubs to grab that spot, the Braves and Mets, are both staring down tough matchups. Atlanta is welcoming the 87-59 Dodgers to Truist Park for a four-game set that begins tonight, while the Mets are ticketed for a three-game set in Philadelphia against the 88-58 Phillies. With the Braves (79-67) just one game back of the Mets (80-66), both series against the NL’s top dogs are particularly pivotal.
It’s also worth noting that the Diamondbacks (82-64) and Padres (82-65) hold the top two Wild Card spots by margins that are hardly insurmountable, and a free-fall by either club could shake up the race in a big way. The only other club with even a 1% chance of winning a Wild Card spot per FanGraphs is the Cubs, who took two of three from the Dodgers earlier this week to stay alive but face a five-game deficit that leaves them needing a miracle to get back into the race.