The Texas Rangers‘ Jacob deGrom‘s greatness has never been a mystery. It’s precision. It’s muscle memory. Every pitch looks like the one before, except for the nastier one. When he’s right, deGrom is baseball’s closest thing to a pitching robot: flawless mechanics, ruthless command, and stuff that makes even the best hitters look overmatched.
That’s what made watching him unravel the past few years so jarring. Two Tommy John surgeries later, the Texas Rangers ace is back in 2025—and his mechanics might finally be back with him. But the question isn’t whether he can still be dominant. He can. It’s whether his body can withstand the cost of getting there.
The Arm Angle Adjustment
This season, deGrom’s average arm angle is 30 degrees—his lowest in the five years of Statcast tracking. That’s a tangible drop from the 35–36 degrees he sat at during his dominant 2020–21 seasons. The lower angle wasn’t exactly by design. It evolved.
“When [my arm angle] climbs,“ deGrom told MLB.com, “I noticed I got a little bit more sore. So I was just trying to do what’s best for [my] health.“
In other words, staying healthy meant altering the delivery that made him elite.
The Results Speak—So Far
Whatever he’s doing, it’s working. In his last three starts, deGrom threw a 10-strikeout gem, blanked the Astros for eight innings, and dismantled the Yankees over seven frames. His slider is biting. His fastball is exploding. His mechanics, while tweaked, are once again synced up.
Pitch-by-pitch, the data confirms it. His four-seamer has shifted from a 34-degree arm angle to 28. The slider? From 37 to 32. Across the board, deGrom’s pitches are coming from a lower release point and still generating elite results.
But… Will It Last?
Here’s the uneasy truth: These are uncharted waters. No pitcher has ever returned from two Tommy John surgeries and kept this level of dominance for long. And while the arm angle change may help deGrom stay healthy in the short term, it comes with trade-offs.
A lower release point adds more horizontal movement—great for deception, tricky for command. And even the most minor deviation matters for a guy who built his legend on surgical precision.
“Sometimes I’ll get a little beside [the baseball] and run it a little more, which I don’t like,“ deGrom admitted.
He’s still tinkering and still feeling it out. That constant adjustment is a testament to his genius and a flashing yellow light. The margin for error is razor-thin. One bad tweak, one sore elbow, and everything unravels.
The Rangers’ Gamble
Texas didn’t just pay for 2025 deGrom. They paid for 2026, 2027, and possibly beyond. If this new version of him holds—healthier, smarter, more adaptable—it could be a steal. But if the arm angle starts creeping up again, so might the red flags.
He’s been here before. After injuries in 2021–22, deGrom lowered his arm slot to 32 degrees. By 2023, it had crept back up—and he was on the shelf again. The mechanics returned. The body didn’t.
Still Worth the Risk
What’s clear is this: deGrom’s brain is as elite as his arm. He’s evolving, reworking his approach, doing everything he can to avoid a third trip under the knife. And when he’s on the mound, the results are still jaw-dropping.
The only question is: how long can this last?
Because right now, deGrom isn’t just defying hitters. He’s defying history.
And for the Rangers—and baseball fans everywhere—that’s reason enough to watch every pitch while it lasts.
Rangers Ace’s New Pitching Mechanics Come With Risks