Episode 1172: Brice Paterik discusses what made Nathan Eovaldi's tenure in Texas so special, the importance of Josh Sborz's return, and some hope for Evan Carter's healthy future.
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Before we get into what could be Nathan Eivaldi's final start as member of the Texas Rangers, the return of one of the trio of Josh's and some good news about Evan Carter moving forward, this episode is brought to you by booking.com. Booking.yeah. The Wright State can make you a fan of any city, even your baseball rivals. Book today on booking.com, the official combination partner of Major League Baseball. Get the booking.com app today. Now the Rangers lost 5-4 in walk-off fashion to the A's last night, but that was after another heroic effort by Nathan Eivaldi in what might just be his final start as a member of the Texas Rangers. I'd say might, because he might have one final start on Sunday if the Rangers decide to augment the rotation by moving Andrew Heaney to Saturday instead of throwing Jack Lighter in what would have been Max Scherzer's spot on Saturday and then throw Eivaldi one more time in that finale in Anaheim, but in all likelihood, this is probably the last start this season for Nathan Eivaldi. It was done his job. He did his job this year. He was everything the Rangers really wanted him to be. Since the all-star break, it's been a little bit of a rough go of it for him. I mean 16 games in the first half of the season, 94 innings, a 3-97 ERA, but in the 12 games in the second half, a 5-30 ERA in 69 and 2/3 innings with 69 strikeouts, both kind of nice numbers, but also not particularly nice. I mean, Nathan Eivaldi is at his best in the biggest games with the highest take, so it makes sense that he's had a couple of clunkers in the games that have not been as meaningful. I mean, that's just kind of the way it goes. Eivaldi has been mostly healthy this season, 163 and 2/3 innings, a combined over 300 innings the last couple of years, and I think it might end up being around 350, if you include the innings that he pitched in the postseason for the Rangers in route to their first-ever World Series title. This was another great effort from Eivaldi who did not have his best stuff. I mean, three walks for him in seven innings, out of character for him in general, and also this year he has done a better job of limiting those walks this season than he did last year, but still goes through seven innings, gets the Rangers, keeps the Rangers in it, probably only should have been a couple of runs, but his defense didn't let him down behind him, four runs total, only three of those were earned, and seven strikeouts for him in this one. The most impressive thing that he did was not allow a home run to the Ranger murderer Shay Langelierz, who only had one hit in this game, granted an RBI double, also scored a couple runs because of course he would walk later because what would it be, a Rangers A's game without Shay Langelierz doing some kind of damage to these Rangers, but if this is the last start for Nathan Eivaldi in a Texas Rangers uniform, if he does opt not to use his $20 million player option next year or re-sign a different deal with the Texas Rangers in free agency, my hats off to Nathan Eivaldi, a Texas Rangers legend forever. The six starts that he had last year in the postseason, not only that, but what he did the Herculean effort that he put forth in the first half of the season, his first couple of starts as a Ranger weren't amazing, but once Jacob de Grom went down last year, Nathan Eivaldi stepped up and looked like the best we've ever seen him outside of what he was doing in the playoffs because that was just absolutely Herculean stuff, but he stepped up in a huge, huge way with that complete game shutout against the Yankees literally the day after de Grom goes down. That's huge. That sets the tone that says, "Hey, I know the guy who you thought was going to be your ace and your horse all year long isn't with us right now," and at that point we didn't know that de Grom was done for the season, but he said, "Right now, we're in this race. We are very much leading the AOS, and we need to continue that lead, and we're going to need somebody at the top of this rotation to go out there every fifth day, especially when the bullpen was as bad as it was and pitched super deep into games." When the Rangers bullpen was at its worst, Nathan Eivaldi was at his best, just carrying this team, and this year the Rangers needed him to do that again. The Rangers said, "Okay, well, we don't have Scherzer, we don't have the Grom, we don't have Malley for most of the season, so all right, Nate, you're number one. Keep us in while we wait for those guys to get healthy." The first half he did his job, he did, and turns out the offense was the one that was not doing his job, but this season going haywire is nothing on Nathan Eivaldi. Last year the championship is not anywhere. The Rangers don't get to, I don't know even the second round maybe, without Nathan Eivaldi what he did. I mean his six starts, all of them outside of game one of the World Series, and even that wasn't a horrible start, all of them he goes at least six innings, pitches into the seventh inning in two out of the six starts. The one bad start was game one of the World Series with the Rangers ended up winning anyway. The Rangers were undefeated in Nathan Eivaldi's starts, and actually that game one was the only one where he didn't get the win. They didn't even know in the postseason, six at out in his starts, but the Rangers, I believe it was Leclerc that ended up getting credit for the win in that miraculous game one. But I mean what he did against Tampa Bay in that game, in game two to seal it, what he did in the clincher against Baltimore to seal it, to give absolutely zero hope to the Baltimore Orioles, and heck what he did in those two starts against the Astros was just magnificent. He didn't have his best up and he really worked himself out of some jams and those, and not to mention the capper in November 1st, game five of the World Series, six of the hardest fought shutout innings you will ever see by anybody, working around five walks and four hits and not allowing any runs while the Rangers were getting no hit on the other side. I mean it was just a masterclass in Nathan Eivaldi being himself, being the guy who steps up in the big moments, and I think that that performance, that game five is the epitome of what you want in an ace. I've talked about what naces and for me the definition is someone who you feel good giving the ball to in game one of a playoff series. Nathan Eivaldi is that now is he a guy who is going to win us a young from now to the end of his career or has he won before? No. Is he going to put up a 2-2 ERA and 200 innings with 300 strikeouts under regular season? Probably not. I'm not going to say it's impossible, but it feels pretty unlikely that it's going to happen at this point. But once you get to the postseason in those biggest games, how could you not feel good about giving the ball to Nathan Eivaldi? I mean what he did in ace also works through their struggles. Not every pitcher is going to have their ace stuff, their best stuff every single start, but the best of the best and the aces separates them from the mediocre guys who have a day where their commander, their velocity, or their break on whatever is off. The guys who are middle of the rotation pitchers, those guys get lit up and they aren't able to get you through five, six innings. But the aces, the top dogs, when they don't have their stuff, when they aren't at their best, when their command is off like it was for him in game five of the World Series, they gave the Rangers six shut out innings. It was incredible stuff. And he's done that time and time and time again. He did it again last night to a lesser degree. Still gave the Rangers seven innings, kept them in that ball game, and that is going to be my lingering memory of Nathan Eivaldi. Not only that, but the impact that he's had on basically every pitcher in this rotation in the bullpen. Everyone in this pitching staff the last couple of years has done nothing but seeing Nathan Eivaldi's praises of how much better he's made them, how much smarter he's made them, how much he cares and mentors everybody on this staff. I mean, from the rookies and Kamot Rucker and Jack Leiter to the old vets and Kirby Yates, I mean, he is there watching everything that everybody's doing. And if he's got two cents that can help somebody, he's got to give it to him. That's the kind of guy you need on your staff. That's the kind of guy who the Rangers should make priority number one this offseason. No matter what else they do, I know it's looking like they've got decent depth in their rotation next year, assuming to go around and stay as healthy, Malley stays relatively healthy, Rucker is what we're hoping he is. Bradford kind of looks like what he's looked like this year and whatever's happening with John Gray and Jack Leiter seems to be up in the air. But bringing a guy like that back in Nathan Eivaldi, even if next year, Rucker has that breakout year and he looks like a top two starter with, you know, he's your game two starter and Jacob de Grom is your game one starter, then you have your game three starter being Nathan Eivaldi, that is a fantastic place to put your rotation. And no matter how healthy it is during the regular season, the impact that he has on this entire rotation, on this entire pitching step, it cannot be overstated. And if that was the last start, the Nathan Eivaldi makes in a Texas Raiders uniform. By golly, it was such a very classic Nathan Eivaldi start. Can we ever talk about what the offense did in this one, Josh's boys return and a little bit of a roster shake up in the final week of this season, as well as some good news about Evan Carter. This episode of Lockdown Raiders is brought to you by booking.com. Booking. Yeah. Explore those US cities you've always wanted to learn more about, including baseball cities. If you want to go see some playoff baseball this year, unfortunately, there's not going to be any in Arlington, but you can go make some trips and go see some great sites because booking.com delivers exactly the right us day just for you. Booking.com can help you book a stay that's close to a home team or a rival team stadium. No matter what team you're rooting for this post season, booking.com can make you a fan of any US city for hotels that overlook stadiums to family friendly resorts to cute bed and breakfast days. Booking.com has so many choices across the US. That's right. So the right stay can make you a fan of any US city, even your baseball rivals. Booking.com. Booking.com. Yeah. This shows brought to you by Fandel. Hey NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on Fandel. This is number one sports book. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play by play, and so much more on the page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. We've also got MLB odds right now looking at the World Series odd, the Padres quenched last night on a crazy triple play, a postseason berth right now. They are the sixth favorite to win the World Series at plus 1000 having backed back first-time winners. That would be a fun thing to see in the playoffs right now, the Orioles, the fifth favorites at plus 950 and the Dodgers. The favorites right now at plus 320. So head over to fandel.com and download America's number one sports book. Shout out to the every day. Making lockdown ranges your first list of every single day. The Rangers take on the A's tonight, 840 p.m. central time first pitch. Cody Bradford versus Brady Bosso you can catch every pitch of the hometown broadcast on Series X-7. Just download the SXM app and search Rangers. Now last night the Rangers offense did get going a little bit, not quite enough to get the W, but some big home runs from a couple of guys who very much needed it. John Haim in particular, a big home run for him late. One that it did not initially look like it was going to be a home run. It was just kind of just just barely cranking over that wall in center field, but hey, it's a home run. It's a home run in the stadium that it was his his first home run in his last, his only home run in his last 15 games over the last seven games though I've been saying, John Haim's been swinging it a little bit better, hitting 292 in that stretch with a 346 on base and a 458 slugging percentage only one walk in that span, but only three strikeouts as well in 24 at bats. That is a pretty good ratio for him would like to see the walks be up just a little bit more but seeing him swing the bat with authority and driving a pitch that was a fastball low and away as a right handed hitter against the lefty deep over that center field wall. That is a great, great look, but it was not the best swing of the night, not the hardest hit ball of the night that belonged to of course the Rangers first baseman, Nathaniel Lowe 108.5 miles an hour off the bat, 441 feet to dead center field Nathan Nathaniel Lowe getting my Nathan's mixed up. Maybe that won't be a problem next year hoping it will be Nathaniel Lowe driving the crap out of the baseball seeing him hit the ball with authority with power. Then we haven't really seen a whole lot of this year. I know power has been down across the board in Major League Baseball and even though he's got all the raw power in the world, Lowe has been a little bit too choosy at times. It's part of why he has a career on base in the high 350s. It might actually be at 360, but still seeing him get going at the end of the season just seeing everybody getting piling on as well as the great RBI double from Adolas Garcia in that first inning and not just that he hit an extra base hit, which in the second half has been a little bit not there, very much not there actually. It has been a struggle for Adolas Garcia this year, but when he is going right seeing him drive the ball to the opposite field with authority, that is the kind of thing that Adolas Garcia does when he is at his best hitting that ball 98.7 miles an hour to right field would have been a home run in eight stadiums. Unfortunately, this was not one of the eight stadiums where it would have been an opposite field home run, but still seeing him get going and get right just have better, more competitive plate appearances is a very, very important thing and also seeing him in that ninth inning in a clutch spot, unfortunately wasn't able to get it done, but seeing him not strike out on Mason Miller's fastball, something he has just struggled with fastballs up in the zone and for him to not get struck out by Mason Miller in that spot, a nice moment for him, although I would have rather been a two RBI single in that spot, or would have rather seen Wyatt Langford get it done and just hit a ball to the outfield, but unfortunately despite a good plate appearance from Wyatt, Mason Miller is just fantastic. I mean, it's so fun for the game of baseball that we have two of these closers, these young closers that are throwing in the hundreds, not just 100, but 102, 103, 104 in Ben Joyce and also Mason Miller. But as a fan of a team in the AOS, I would rather those guys be just somewhere else, we have to keep seeing them as often as we do. I mean, heck, the closers in the AOS this year have all been pretty darn good. It's funny that the most expensive one has been the least effective this year, and that's Josh Hader, and he's still ended up with a pretty good season. But Andres Munoz, Mason Miller, Ben Joyce, Kirby Yates, the closers in the AOS this year have been absolutely fantastic. Now, they could have been a little bit better. It had the Rangers not made a trade for Corey Kluber, but we're not going there. We've already discussed that about a million times on this show. But still, seeing this offense get going and seeing those guys have good at bats is an encouraging sign. The Rangers got a little bit of roster turnover in this one. Josh Young being placed on the 10 day I L his season officially being over Josh Moore's was activated from the 15 day I L. Matt Duffy had his contract selected from Round Rock. Dustin Harris was called up to the big leagues the first time in his big league career. His big league career has finally started. He was traded over. And I believe that was the Mike Miner trade that Dustin Harris came over to the Rangers from the A's. So if he gets to make his debut against the team that drafted him, I think that'd be kind of funny. But Ezekiel Duran placed on the paternity list. Congratulations to Ezekiel Duran and for becoming a father for I believe the first time. Congrats to him and his family. Walter Pennington option to the minor leagues and Tyler Malley put on the 60 day I L something that I was surprised hadn't been done already to kind of clear up all this roster space. We saw Matt Duffy for an ending as a defensive replacement. We have not seen Dustin Harris just yet. I would anticipate we see him at some point in this Oakland series just because I mean I'd rather see him get his major league debut than a couple more played appearances from Trash Jankowski. No offense to Janko but just seeing a kid make his major league debut is always a fun site no matter what it looks like. Dustin Harris has had a good season with the on base numbers but the raw power being there we haven't seen it actualize in the games at a rake that I would like for Dustin. I mean if he was you know putting up power numbers like what his raw power shows that he's capable of I think he would have gotten a shot in the major leagues this year a legitimate shot to be you know the corner outfielder or a DH or something and with the amount of guys the Rangers have called up. But good to see Dustin Harris get that call up will he stay up when Ezekiel Duran comes off the paternalist not entirely sure but good on him to just get that call up and good on Josh Bors for getting back getting healthy to end this season because he is going to be a big part of the Rangers plan in the bullpen moving forward coming up we'll talk about him what he's feeling about his injury recovery and how healthy he's going to be next year and how that ties into another Ranger who's been hurt for most of the season coming back and hopefully being a huge huge part of the Rangers resurgence in 2025 talk about all that and more right after this word from our sponsors. This show is brought to you by Game Time. Game Time is the best way to get tickets to all the live events you're wanting to go to. Just last week I used Game Time to go get tickets to Kamala Rocker's home debut and while Kamala Rocker wasn't exactly what I was hoping for in terms of his performance Game Time gave me an incredible deal the best seats that I've ever had at Global Life Field and the price was incredible I mean absolutely incredible Game Time they've got Game Time picks that filters out the fluff and it gives you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through a thousands of tickets they've also got all in pricing and toggling this feature it shows you the total upfront with no surprise fees at checkout Game Time also has ticket coverage and your purchase is covered with the most flexible customer service policy in the ticketing industry so take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time download the Game Time app create an account and use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase in terms apply again create an account and redeem code LOCKEDOIN MLB for $20 off download game time today what time is it it's game time you know we love talking stats here at locked on Rockies here's one that's super simple to remember discover automatically doubles the cash back you've earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with cash back match that means with discover you could turn 150 cash back to $300 that's right you could put it towards some memorabilia you've had your eye on or treat yourself to a premium sports network you earn and discover doubles see terms at discover.com/creditcard Now the Rangers have relied on a lot of Josh power over the last couple of seasons now last season it was Josh Young being at all star and being an incredibly helpful part of this offense powering them to a world series there's also Josh Bors in the bullpen last year being incredible throughout that entire postseason run including throwing the final pitch of the Rangers first ever world series championship which makes them a Texas Rangers legend forever and then this year they didn't get quite as much out of Josh's those two Josh's at least but the third Josh stepped up and had a pretty darn good year but the Rangers had injuries to their two primary Josh's from last year in Spores and Young missing a lot of time with Spores three different stints on the IL with a shoulder issue he did get some good news that he came back and he is encouraged by what they found they feel like they have some sort of answer as to why his shoulder has been acting up all season and hopes that that leads to next year it not acting not acting up all season which is going to be an important part of the Rangers next year and now they have basically four high relief late relief options that have been solid this year at times Leclerc has not quite been that but what they got out of Kirby in Kirby Yates and David Robertson has been phenomenal and for the most part this year Spores has been solid when he's been pitching but before last night he had only 16 innings which is fewer than they got out of Gary Rodriguez this year not exactly what you're hoping for out of a guy who was supposed to be a big part of the Rangers high leverage relief options but the Rangers have three of those guys three of those four guys that I just mentioned that are gonna be free agents Robertson Yates Leclerc all going to be free agents next year Spores is under contract next year now he's probably gonna make a little bit less than two million dollars and what I believe will be his second year of arbitration due to missing a lot of time this year but the Rangers need him to be at his October 2023 Josh Boyziness for most of next year because the Rangers have a lot of options next year for what they can do to fix the bullpen bringing back Yates and Robertson I think would be great they might be a little too expensive for what the Rangers want to spend which I think would be very unfortunate given how great those guys were and how much they clearly like it here but it's going to be a big part of next year how healthy Josh Spores can be as is how healthy Josh Young can be he is going to meet with a surgeon again the same surgeon undergo a CT scan to kind of figure out what the heck's been going on with his wrist see what they're going to do to alleviate that for next year he is on the IL and is wanting to make sure that this problem doesn't keep cropping up that he doesn't keep having these random injuries he's had more than his fair share of random injuries and he talked about I don't want to be you know to have my career be defined by having a cortisone shot every six weeks and that really resonated with me I mean this is a guy who is obsessed with baseball I mean that was one of the things that I loved about Josh Young as a prospect as the guy who the Rangers got out of the draft this guy lives and breathes baseball and for him to be missing this much time to have this much baseball taken away from him I know it's just absolutely killing him that he can't be out there right he talked about wanting to play through it but you know there's only so much that you can do there's only so much that you can play through and at a certain point it does more harm than good which is something that we saw with Evan Carter this year something that we might end up seeing with me and podcasting through this sore throat I've been doing for the past week very bravely almost as bravely as Evan Carter playing through his back injury but there was an article written by Kennedy Landry of MLB.com a little a few days ago this weekend actually talking about Evan Carter she she spent some time speaking with Evan Carter about how difficult the season has been from him just not only not being out there but the production when he was out there was just was just not great it was not great Evan Carter didn't look anywhere near the rising superstar they look like in September or October of last year I mean he just could not hit the ball with any authority the last couple of weeks which is when he was playing through that back injury but Carter did have some good news he wouldn't go into specifics about what exactly they found but he feels like he and the doctors have found exactly what has caused the root of these back injuries which is a good thing and also something that can you alleviate that something that can fix the problem it's not just oh we know what it is and I'm gonna have to deal with this the rest of my career that would be scary that's what happened to Grady Sizemore and that's why the comps two Grady Sizemore were little at times it felt like two on the nose of you know young flashy athletic guy had a brilliant start to his career and injuries just really took it off the rails we're hoping that wasn't going to be the case with Evan Carter but I think what's happened with Evan Carter is going to go under the radar of things that really went awry for the Rangers this year and I think it should be up there with the top you know three reasons why the Rangers have fallen this far now them pitting their hopes on a 21 year old rookie who just turned 22 less than a month ago that might be part of the problem as well but the Rangers could just getting almost absolutely nothing out of Evan Carter moving forward uh or this past year has has been a big big part of this problem it's why Travis Chancowski has so many DH days and every day you know at bats when he has been you know to put it frankly very bad and it's why the Rangers couldn't give the old Garcia as many days off because their other options were basically Travis Chancowski and some other not great options but one of the quotes that got me really really excited about Evan Carter moving forward is him saying quote my hope is that once we get everything going that needs to in the next week or two but I should never have to think about this until I'm 50 is what Evan Carter said he hasn't quite restarted baseball activities just yet but he also said that they don't think there's going to be a problem moving forward which is encouraging because if your 22 year old burgeoning star outfield youngster is dealing with back problems the second back injury that has derailed or prematurely cut off a season I mean he had one in his first pro season where he played 30 something games and uh blow away down east and uh it didn't do much after that because it's my back injury and how you happen a second time before he's even turned 22 that's scary there were some questions about Evan Carter that's why people and most people in the industry ended up putting white length for a little bit higher on their prospect list heading into this year despite having already seen Evan Carter just kick people's butts on the highest stage in major league baseball it's because they're concerns about can he hit lefties can he stay healthy well they can stay healthy I'm pretty confident that eventually Evan Carter is going to figure out how to hit lefties and having those two at the top of your lineup for years and years to come in white length for an Evan Carter we've already seen the high highs of what Evan Carter can be for that that stretch run last year I don't know if he's going to you know have a whole season where he maintains an OPS north of 900 or north of a thousand um but the potential is there and there was a reason it was so exciting and so tantalizing and why I was saying crazy things like the Rangers might just be becoming a dynasty after that first championship it's because of the combination of Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford adding to what was already supposed to be a really good offense and this year wasn't it's why you can be okay with you know step backs from guys and saying okay well it was Garcia had a career year in 2023 and you know Jonah Heim had a career year in 2023 and the Rangers know what they're getting in their middle infield and they know what they're getting hopefully in their young core of Evan Carter and white Langford and Josh Young as well of all those guys being above average to borderline all-star level players next year that's how you feel confident in a team succeeding moving forward you throw all that together with some competent pitching development with some big splashy free agents doing what those big flashy spray agents big splashy free agents do in Corey Seager in Jacob Grom in Marcus Simeon that's when you know you got a team that can stay rolling for a long time but Evan Carter's absence this year has been monumentous it has been felt in a big big way and I was really cautious about you know putting any expectations on him moving forward in general not that I thought that oh I'm just writing Evan Carter off because you know he's had two back injuries and you know I can't expect anything from him far be it from that it's just felt safer to not have a whole lot of hope and okay what the heck is Evan Carter going to be moving forward is he going to be a platoon guy only and hit really well against Righties and never hit against Lefties and you know not stay healthy enough to actualize that potential that'd be incredibly frustrating incredibly sad we'd still always have that postseason run it'd still be World Series Champion three whole hitter on the World Series Champion Texas Rangers in 2023 that will always be something that Evan Carter will be able to hang his hat on and you know be beloved for but it was also potential of this guy's just getting started and it felt like things were being taken away from him and I'm really hoping that whatever they found in his back whatever issue that's been hampering him these last couple years I really hope they fix it not just for what he could be in his baseball career but just there's life in general I mean that was a really concerning part of it for me is this kid's barely 21 years old he's already having back problems what's the rest of his life going to look like let alone what his baseball career is going to look like so it was a really encouraging note to hear from this weekend from Kennedy Landry's story go make sure you go check out that story in full to see exactly what he was saying about it I'm hoping that we can get some positive notes this offseason he can be healthy in the next couple weeks they can get whatever is wrong with his back sorted out and hopefully like he said he doesn't have to worry about this till he's 50 and if that is the case then you know maybe we'll look back at the season and laugh at how much of a disaster it was from our second franchises World Series Parade in 2025 that's going to do it for today's show thank you all so much for listening and subscribing and until next time don't forget to enjoy World Series Champion Texas Raiders Baseball a prime members you can listen to this lock-down podcast add free on Amazon music download the Amazon music app today
