Rangers pitcher Jacob deGrom makes first spring training start

SURPRISE – As Jacob deGrom returned to the dugout after warming up for what would be his 2026 spring training debut, the speakers at Surprise Stadium played an unfamiliar national anthem.

As part of the World Baseball Classic, an international world-cup-style event, MLB teams took on international teams in exhibition matches across spring training complexes in Arizona and Florida this week. The Brazilian National Team traveled to Surprise Wednesday to face the Texas Rangers, a game the Rangers won 13-2 after seven innings due to the mercy rule. 

“It’s always fun to have these WBC games,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “We’ve faced a number of teams throughout my years now; never faced Brazil.” 

DeGrom, the Rangers’ ace, took the mound for the first time this spring – the first step of a gradual buildup the team hopes will lead to him pitching deep into September and maybe October.

DeGrom allowed three hits and struck out three in two innings, the lone run coming on a solo shot to left center from Brazil’s Lucas Ramirez, a player who might have looked familiar to longtime fans. 

Ramirez, son of former MLB star Manny Ramirez, was drafted in the 17th round in 2024 by the Los Angeles Angels. He ended 2025 in the Angels’ High-A affiliate, Tri-City, at 19. Ramirez wore a No. 24 jersey for Brazil in honor of his father, who coached Lucas throughout his childhood.

“I threw a fastball, and it was just middle-middle,” deGrom said. “The shape of everything was good, I just threw it right down the middle.”

DeGrom wanted to establish his fastball, throwing it 54% of the time and recording 71% for strikes. His four-seamer averaged 97.6 miles per hour, a tenth above his 2025 average. 

A five-time All-Star, deGrom was derailed by injuries for much of the first half of this decade. Lingering forearm tightness in 2021, a stress reaction in his shoulder in 2022, and Tommy John surgery in 2023 limited deGrom to just 35 starts from 2021 to 2024 between the New York Mets and Rangers. 

But he was stellar last season, finishing eighth in Cy Young voting in 2025, recording a 2.97 ERA over 172 ⅔ innings for Texas. The Rangers limited his pitch count early in the season to build him up, recording over 90 pitches just once until May. 

“Last year, I was able to make 30 starts and felt like I could have kept going,” deGrom said. “If we would have made the playoffs, I felt like I was ready to go, so we’ll build off that and just see how this year’s going and hopefully run up there as many times as I can.”

Schumaker confirmed before deGrom’s spring training start that the plan would be similar this season, something deGrom also wanted. DeGrom feels like he used to have more time when he was younger to prepare for the season once he returned to the spring training complex, and that preparing at home just isn’t the same. 

“I was throwing 40-pitch bullpens in Stetson and felt like I could have thrown them every day,” deGrom said. “As soon as you get here, you get eyes on you, a little bit of an adrenaline spike, you get a little bit more sore than you were there.” 

While deGrom has set a goal to reach 200 innings for the first time since 2019 when he won his second straight Cy Young Award in a near-unanimous vote – and for the fourth time in his career – Schumaker wants to make sure he has his ace when it matters most. 

“It’s going to be a very similar approach to get the best out of him and for us and also be strong to make a September push,” Schumaker said. “Hopefully there’s meaningful games in September where we can use him, and he’s built up by then to let it go.”

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