Today on Pinstripe Alley - 12/28/22

It was probably destiny for Nate Eovaldi to wind up pitching for the Rangers eventually. It felt like every single time that he pitched for the Yankees in Arlington during his stint in pinstripes from 2015-16, the broadcast mentioned that the flamethrower grew up in the same town as legendary Rangers no-hit artist Nolan Ryan.

I don’t know why it feels like I heard that more with Eovaldi in Rangers games compared to Astros games since Ryan also pitched in Houston and Houston is closer to Alvin than Arlington, but oh well. It doesn’t matter. That’s suddenly an interesting rotation with Eovaldi joining Jacob deGrom, Martín Pérez, Jon Gray, and Andrew Heaney. Although I doubt that they have much hope of unseating those Astros, maybe there’s a Wild Card team here if everything breaks right.

Today on the site, Gary will pitch Robbie Grossman as an possible surprise free agent target, and Sam will bring our Top 25 Playoff Games of the Past 25 Years into the last truly great New York postseason that we’ve seen, 2009. This one will go back to perhaps the signature moment of that championship run, Alex Rodriguez’s stunning blast in the ninth inning of ALDS Game 2 off Joe Nathan. Later on, Esteban will muse on what the Yankees’ outfield prospects must do to advance the franchise forward, and Peter will make the case for another free agent, former Rookie of the Year contender Brian Anderson.

Questions/Prompts:

1. Have the Rangers improved enough to earn a Wild Card spot in 2023?

2. After coming to terms with Sean Murphy, who will the Braves extend next?