ARLINGTON, Texas -- Texas Rangers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, among the favorites for the American League Cy Young Award, will likely miss the remainder of the season with a strained rotator cuff.
Chris Young, the team's president of baseball operations, made the announcement Tuesday, a day before Eovaldi's scheduled start against the Los Angeles Angels when he would have had another opportunity to take over as MLB's qualified ERA leader. He is 11-3 with a career-best 1.73 ERA in 22 starts.
Entering Tuesday, Eovaldi was tied for third among AL Cy Young favorites with 30-1 odds at ESPN BET.
Eovaldi has been one of baseball's best pitchers all season, but he was left off the American League All-Star team and hasn't been among the qualified leaders after missing most of June because of elbow inflammation.
He was MLB's official ERA leader for one night, after he allowed one run in seven innings against Cleveland on Friday. That put him at 130 innings in 130 Rangers games and put him ahead of All-Star starters Paul Skenes (2.07) and Tarik Skubal (2.28) until Texas played the following day -- pitchers need one inning per team game to qualify.
This is Eovaldi's third consecutive season with at least 11 wins since joining his home state team, and last December he signed a new $75 million, three-year contract through 2027. The 35-year-old Eovaldi and Hall of Fame strikeout king Nolan Ryan are the only big league players from Alvin, Texas.
Eovaldi has a 102-84 career record and 3.84 ERA over 14 big league seasons with six teams and has won World Series championships with Boston in 2018 and Texas in 2023. He made his MLB debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers (2011-12) and later pitched for Miami (2012-14), the New York Yankees (2015-16), Tampa Bay (2018) and Boston (2018-22).
The Associated Press contributed to this report.