What to Make of Gore's First Season With Rangers

Back on Jan. 22, the Texas Rangers acquired LHP MacKenzie Gore from the Washington Nationals in exchange for a package of five prospects, highlighted by 2025 12th overall pick Gavin Fien and first baseman Abimelec Ortiz, who just broke into the big leagues in our nation’s capital.

At the time, the Rangers made the move not only because of the pitcher that Gore was up to that point in his career, but because of who they felt like he could become.

“We anticipate, with knowing the person, the competitor, the desire to be great, he fits all the criteria of great starting pitchers, and we're excited to help him,” Texas President of Baseball Operations Chris Young said at the time.

Despite the high expectations, it hasn’t quite been the season Gore or the Rangers would have wanted up until this point.

Through 25 starts, Gore has posted a 6-9 record, with a 4.43 ERA, a 1.23 WHIP, and 149 strikeouts in 134 innings.

Gore’s advanced metrics suggest those numbers should be a little better than they are but not by much.

Early on in this season, Gore struggled to find the strike zone, but it seems that he may have turned the page at least a little bit on that front, as lately he has been much better with his command and, as a result, has been able to work much deeper in games.

A big factor in his recent success has been Gore’s ability to eliminate the big inning, which seemed to plague him in just about every start throughout the first half of the season.

In his last three starts, Gore has allowed just four earned runs in 18.1 innings of work. Three of the five runs came in the very first inning of that stretch. Take that inning away, and Gore has allowed just one earned run in his last 17.1 innings of work.

Despite not having the success that he’s wanted in a Rangers uniform so far, Gore has taken the ball every fifth day (and sometimes less than that) and given the team a chance to win more often than not.

There’s no doubt that Gore has been a key piece in helping to keep Texas afloat and still in the playoff race.

Still with another season of team control, it’s certainly not hard to see the potential that’s there with Gore.