Could Montgomery take over injured Eovaldi's rotation spot?

This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry’s Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Jordan Montgomery, 33, had last pitched in the Majors on Sept. 22, 2024, as a member of the Diamondbacks. If you look closely, he was even a member of the Brewers for a short period of time in 2025, though he never pitched for the club.

Montgomery had Tommy John surgery in March 2025, was traded from the Diamondbacks to the Brewers while rehabbing at last year’s Trade Deadline and then signed with the Rangers in Spring Training 2026, while still rehabbing the same elbow.

After months and months of rehab, Montgomery finally made his Rangers debut -- for his second stint -- on Sunday, in the Rangers' loss to the Orioles at home. He allowed three runs in four innings of relief, with Baltimore racking up six hits, a walk and a pair of homers.

“It's good to see him back out there,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “I think his velo is still gonna probably be trending up. I think he made some good pitches. I thought his changeup and his sinker were good at times. But it was just really good to see him out there. There's no doubt. A lot of hard work to get back here, but I think I think you'll see the stuff tick up the more he's out there.”

It was his sixth career regular-season relief appearance (167th MLB appearance in the regular season). The 79 pitches were the most he’s ever thrown in a relief outing in his career.

“It was nice,” Montgomery said postgame. “I wish it had gone better. Definitely was nervous and amped up, but also trying to aim the pitch too much instead of just letting it rip. So back to work tomorrow. … Keep working. I mean, we'll get right back to work tomorrow and just focus on the positives. I threw some good sliders, curveballs. Really, just the fastball was pretty bad.”

When Montgomery was initially activated from the injured list on Aug. 7, two days before he pitched in a game, Schumaker said he would be pitching out of the bullpen in a yet to be determined role.

And that made sense at the time.

With fellow UCL rehabber Cody Bradford previously coming off the injured list, and Jack Leiter still rehabbing ankle surgery, the Rangers had five healthy starters to make up the rotation: Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, MacKenzie Gore, Kumar Rocker and Bradford.

But on Monday, Eovaldi landed on the injured list himself (retroactive to Sunday) due to what the team described as right posterior elbow inflammation that arose following his most recent start against the Orioles in Arlington.

Schumaker told reporters in Anaheim that Eovaldi’s spot in the rotation could fall in Montgomery’s lap. Or it could be Cal Quantrill, who has also made seven starts this season. Both have made their most recent outings out of the bullpen.

“We have a pretty good idea, but we’re going to wait to see what these next couple games look like,” Schumaker said. “Obviously it’s going to be internal, but as far as who that is, we’ll see what these next two games look like. … If we do end up going with somebody else internally, as far as Cal or Jordan or whatever we do, that’s also going to change things as far as bullpen usage.”