MacKenzie Gore gave the Rangers what they could count on in 2026: the ball every fifth day. What Texas did not get often enough was the kind of finish that justified last winter’s five-prospect deal with Washington.
The 27-year-old left-hander made a Major League-leading 34 starts, the most by a Rangers pitcher to pace the sport since Charlie Hough worked 40 games in 1987. Gore also led Texas in innings, finished second on the club with 174 strikeouts and ranked fourth in victories.
Still, his 8-11 record and 4.58 ERA left the Rangers looking for more. Only nine of his 34 outings qualified as quality starts, a 26.5% rate and his lowest such total since he had eight quality starts in 2023.
Quick facts
- Gore made an MLB-high 34 starts for Texas in 2026.
- He went 8-11 with a 4.58 ERA and 174 strikeouts.
- His 1.34 WHIP was fifth-highest among qualified American League pitchers.
- At home, Gore posted a 3.43 ERA in 16 starts; on the road, his ERA climbed to 5.73 over 18 starts.
- His 3.87 FIP sat 0.71 runs below his ERA, one of the largest favorable gaps among qualified starters.
Texas had entered the year believing Gore could help balance an accomplished rotation led by Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi. With Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker also expected to supply young legs and meaningful innings, the club hoped its next wave could offset any age-related decline from its veteran anchors.
That equation never fully worked. President of baseball operations Chris Young said the organization would conduct a complete player review, adding that Gore was not alone among Rangers who failed to make the anticipated step forward.
Young pointed to Leiter and Rocker as younger pitchers from whom Texas expected major production. The Rangers understood deGrom and Eovaldi might not repeat every part of their 2025 form, he said, but the club expected improvement elsewhere in the rotation. “We didn’t get there this year,” Young said, noting that the reasons would be examined over the offseason.
Gore did show the ceiling that made him so expensive to acquire. He carried a 3.56 ERA through six May starts, then turned in a 2.70 mark across five August appearances. The strikeout stuff remained present, too: his 9.05 strikeouts per nine innings ranked 12th in the American League, while his 174 punchouts tied Tampa Bay’s Drew Rasmussen for 11th.
The trouble was the rougher nights, particularly away from Arlington. Gore went 4-2 in his 16 home starts, and the Rangers won 11 of those games. On the road, he was 4-9 with a 5.73 ERA in 18 starts, a split that stood as the fifth-largest home-road ERA difference among AL pitchers with at least 120 innings when the road figure was higher.
His road ERA was also the ninth-highest qualified mark in the majors. That imbalance helped push Gore’s overall ERA to the second-highest among qualified AL pitchers, even as his fielding independent pitching number suggested better underlying work than the final line showed.
The 3.87 FIP offers Texas a reason to believe the pitcher it targeted remains in there. But the 2027 assignment is clear: turn the flashes from May and August into a season that holds together from opening week through the final turn.
Young said effort was not the issue. He praised Gore’s competitiveness down the stretch and noted that the lefty took a start on three days’ rest at one point. The Rangers expect a strong winter of work from Gore, and they need a better year when he returns.
