There are pitchers who dominate seasons, and then there are pitchers who bend the idea of what dominance even looks like. Jacob deGrom has always belonged to the second category. As the calendar edges toward 2026, the conversation around him isn’t just about health or velocity anymore. It’s about the quiet possibility that, with the right strategy, he could chase a feat so rare it feels almost mythic in the modern game.
For the Texas Rangers, deGrom represents both certainty and risk. When he’s on the mound, baseball feels unfair. Hitters don’t look overmatched so much as outpaced, as if the game is moving faster for him than for anyone else.
But the years have taught everyone the same lesson: brilliance like this must be handled carefully. The question for 2026 isn’t whether deGrom is capable of something special. It’s whether the Rangers can create the conditions that allow it to happen.
The rare feat being whispered about isn’t just another Cy Young or a statistical crown. Those are familiar ideas for deGrom.
This is about sustaining peak dominance across a full, intentional season—elite innings, elite efficiency, and elite impact without crossing the thin line that has undone so many great arms. In an era obsessed with pitch counts and load management, pulling this off would require restraint just as much as aggression.
That’s where strategy comes in.
The Rangers don’t need deGrom to be everything, every night. They need him to be devastating when it matters most. That may mean fewer starts, but sharper ones. It may mean skipping him when the schedule tightens, or trusting depth arms to absorb innings that once would have fallen on his shoulders. On paper, that looks like caution. In practice, it could be the key to unlocking something historic.\
What makes deGrom different is not just how hard he throws, but how little he wastes. His mechanics are efficient, his command precise, his approach almost surgical. When healthy, he doesn’t grind through innings—he erases them. That efficiency is the foundation of the dream. If the Rangers build a plan that prioritizes rest without disrupting rhythm, deGrom could deliver a season where dominance and durability finally coexist.
There’s also the mental side, which often gets overlooked. deGrom doesn’t pitch for spectacle. He pitches with a quiet intensity, almost detached, as if the chaos of the game never quite reaches him. That mindset could be his greatest asset in 2026. He doesn’t need to chase milestones. If anything, the less he thinks about them, the closer they come.
Opponents already know what it feels like to face him. The rare feat would not come from surprising anyone. It would come from repetition—start after start of the same impossible experience. Velocity late into games. Breaking balls that still bite. Hitters walking back to the dugout knowing they didn’t miss their pitch; it just wasn’t hittable.
For Rangers fans, the idea is both thrilling and fragile. They’ve seen how quickly plans can unravel. That’s why 2026 feels different. There’s patience in the organization now, and an understanding that greatness doesn’t always need to be pushed. Sometimes it needs to be protected.
If this rare achievement becomes reality, it won’t be because deGrom suddenly became something new. It will be because the Rangers finally let him be exactly who he is, on terms that respect both his talent and his limits. That balance is hard to find in baseball, especially when a player is capable of rewriting expectations.
The beauty of this possibility lies in its uncertainty. Nothing is guaranteed, and deGrom has never needed guarantees to be great. All he needs is time, trust, and a strategy that values longevity as much as brilliance.
If 2026 becomes the year where Jacob deGrom achieves something the sport rarely sees, it won’t feel like a miracle. It will feel like patience paying off, like a masterpiece completed slowly, one perfectly placed pitch at a time.
