The Texas Rangers announced that Jacob deGrom has neck stiffness and won’t start Saturday against the Phillies, but he could start on the season-opening road trip.
PHILADELPHIA — Jacob deGrom has neck stiffness and won’t make his 2026 debut Saturday against the Phillies, the Texas Rangers announced about four hours before the right-hander was scheduled to take the mound.
Left-hander Jacob Latz was picked to replace for deGrom, who had no health issues during spring training after starting 30 games in 2025. The Rangers said that deGrom was scratched out of an abundance of caution and said he could start one of the final four games of the season-opening road trip.
They have him tentatively scheduled to start Tuesday at Baltimore, following Jack Leiter on Monday.
“That’s the plan,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “He, obviously, didn’t feel great waking up today, tried to throw, and as he’s going through his progression this morning, I just felt like the best thing we can do for him and for us is to push him back.”
Temperatures were in the 30s throughout the morning at Citizen Bank Park, with wind chills in the 20s. The forecast high for Saturday was 46, right around first pitch, but the wind wasn’t expected to subside.
Latz should be stretched out enough to log up to five innings. He did not win the fifth spot in the rotation in spring training, losing out to Kumar Rocker. The Rangers also felt that Latz’s ability to pitch multiple innings out of the bullpen would serve them better early in the season than if he were a starter.
But deGrom said that the weather had nothing to do with the decision. He said that he was having trouble turning his head to the right and felt some neck stiffness while throwing plyo balls.
This isn’t his first encounter with neck stiffness in his career, and he’s learned to let it run its course rather than attempt to overtreat it. He was also on board with the Rangers’ decision to not push him through it and cause a more significant injury.
“Hopefully, it’s just a couple of days and you’re ready to go,” deGrom said. “I threw my bullpen the other day. Felt great. I woke up [Saturday], and I was like, ‘Oh, man,’ my neck’s stiff.”
Latz was the clear choice to make the start after being stretched out in spring training. He didn’t have a great spring, posting an 8.04 ERA and 10 walks in 15 2/3 innings, and experienced a velocity dip during starts, but the Rangers have confidence in him based on his work last season as a part-time starter.
“We’re very fortunate that we have Latz available today and ready to pitch so quickly after spring training, because he’s built up,” Schumaker said. ” A lot of teams don’t have this luxury. I do feel like it’s a luxury, even though it doesn’t feel that way. I get it, not having deGrom today, but having Latz, what he did last year in his starts and it was a real battle in spring training. It very, very easily could have been him getting the fifth spot.”
Instead, the fifth spot went to Kumar Rocker, who was originally scheduled to start Monday. However, the Rangers could need him out of the bullpen after using their long man, Latz, on Saturday.
Rocker could start Wednesday, though that is Nathan Eovaldi’s day to start. Schumaker said multiple scenarios are under consideration, and they all hinge on deGrom being available to pitch at Baltimore.
“We’re going to see what this looks like, just because there are a number of different scenarios that could pop up,” Schumaker said.
Jeff Wilson, jwilson@alldlls.com
