Jacob deGrom catches brutal stray on Red Sox broadcast

As Jacob deGrom prepares to start Opening Day for the Texas Rangers, count Boston Red Sox analyst Lou Merloni among those who don’t expect him to be healthy by August.

During the Red Sox Sunday afternoon Spring Training game against the New York Mets, Merloni and play-by-play voice Tom Caron were looking at Boston’s remaining schedule and their season opening series on the road with the Texas Rangers. The Rangers expect to rebound from a disappointing 2024 season after winning the World Series in 2023, and deGrom being healthy is a big reason why.

“The problem is you get them on that opening series while deGrom is healthy. You want to play them in August when he’s on the IL.” – Lou Merloni pic.twitter.com/UbNYy4ykNj

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 3, 2025

“A lot of talent on that team, everybody just sort of underperformed,” Merloni said of the Rangers. “The problem is you get them on that opening series while deGrom is healthy. You want to play them in August when he’s on the IL.”

Here’s deGrom, enjoying a normal offseason and preparing to start Opening Day for the first time since having Tommy John surgery in 2013, and he already has analysts predicting his next injury. Harsh! But also, the odds are definitely in Merloni’s favor.

The last time deGrom started a game in April and August in the same season was 2019. Donald Trump was in his first term as president, no one had ever heard of COVID-19, Mike Trout was still an MVP and Tom Brady was quarterback of the New England Patriots. 2019 was a lifetime ago.

More importantly, deGrom was 31 years old the last time he started games in April and August in the same season. He’s going to be 37 in June. Degrom is an exciting pitcher to watch and Major League Baseball is undoubtedly better when he’s healthy. So hopefully, deGrom manages to survive the start and finish of the season with a healthy right arm. But the odds of an injury prone pitcher getting healthy for the first time in six years, at the age of 37, seems slim.