March 11th, 2024
TEMPE, Ariz. — If there’s been any rust for Nathan Eovaldi to shake off this spring, he hasn’t let it slow him down.
The Rangers’ right-hander has largely picked up where he left off in a small sample size, allowing five runs (four earned) on seven hits and five walks against 10 strikeouts across three spring starts (9 2/3 innings), including Monday’s 15-5 win over the Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium.
True to his hyper-competitive nature, Eovaldi wasn’t overly satisfied with his final line, which included four free passes — but he felt good physically as he completed his longest Cactus League outing yet, throwing an estimated 83-84 pitches.
“The Angels rolled out their A-squad and had a lot of their main guys in the lineup today,” Eovaldi said. “I think it’s just the small things, like me going out there and just fine-tuning the little things.”
With two and a half weeks to go until the Rangers host the Cubs on March 28, Eovaldi is the natural choice to get the ball to ring in the regular season. The club has made no official announcement, but he’s lined up schedule-wise to make his fourth career Opening Day start after doing so in three consecutive years with Boston from 2020-22.
Entering his second season with Texas, Eovaldi set a high bar for himself with a dominant 2023 in which he posted a 3.63 ERA in 25 starts, earning his second career All-Star selection and, of course, bringing home another World Series ring.
The overall resume is impressive, no doubt. But Eovaldi does much more than take the ball every fifth day for the Rangers.
He’ll one day leave the team better than he found it, because not only did his gutsy performance in the postseason help lead Texas to the promised land for the first time in franchise history, but he also makes an effort to help his teammates — present and future — become the best versions of themselves.
Count Marc Church, who is competing for a spot in the Opening Day bullpen, as one of Eovaldi’s most enthusiastic pupils. The 22-year-old right-hander, who is Texas’ No. 23 prospect per MLB Pipeline, values Eovaldi’s depth of experience and lessons learned from a storied career.
“Hopefully one day I could see the game from that perspective,” Church said. “But right now I’m young and eager to learn every day. And he’s eager to be a teacher to me.”
The mentor-mentee relationship began last year, when Eovaldi was new to the organization and Church was in his first Major League camp as a non-roster invitee. Church said he has soaked up a lot from the veteran righty, including how to pick up on swing cues from opposing batters.
“He sees things that I don’t see,” Church said. “He has more than 10 years in the big leagues, and I’m trying to get one day this year. I’m trying to debut and start my career, so he pays a lot more attention to detail that a vet’s eyes can see that my eyes maybe can’t see yet.”
Eovaldi makes a point of watching his teammates throw as often as he can — both bullpen sessions and game outings — in order to pick up tidbits of information.
Sometimes he can find a takeaway for himself, and other times he notices a possible adjustment that could help his teammates, as with Church.
“A lot of the things that I’ve learned, I’ve learned through failure,” Eovaldi said. “I’ve had to figure it out on my own, so it’s like, if these guys can figure it out at a younger age, then I think their big league careers are going to last longer.”
That’s not to say Eovaldi didn’t have that kind of help along the way — he’s picked up a lot from teammates and coaches over the years — but he knows firsthand that it takes a metaphorical village to build a big league career.
“It’s always good to have the players’ peers step in the breach and help ’em,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “Those are guys who are hard to find, to be honest. … That’s what you always hear: Great players make their teammates better. Well, Nate certainly does that.”
It’s safe to say Church agrees.
“He definitely is the right kind of guy and a guy that every clubhouse needs.”
