Arlington, Texas — The Texas Rangers today announced the following roster moves prior to Sunday’s series finale against the Kansas City Royals at Globe Life Field:

• Right-handed pitcher Max Scherzer activated from 60-day Injured List (rehab from back surgery).
• Right-handed pitcher Yerry Rodríguez optioned to Triple-A Round Rock.

Scherzer, 39, is expected to serve as Texas’ starting pitcher this afternoon, making his season debut after opening the campaign on the Injured List while recovering from a microdiscectomy procedure performed on his lower lumbar on December 14, 2023. His scheduled outing today would be his first Major League appearance since a start in Game 3 of the 2023 World Series on October 30, 2023 at Arizona (ND, 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 SO, 36 pitches/21 strikes).

The right-hander has gone 0-1, 4.91 ERA (6 ER/11.0 IP) with 17 strikeouts/3 walks, a .244 opp. BA (10-41), and 3 home runs allowed across 3 appearances/starts for Round Rock (AAA) during an injury rehabilitation assignment which began in late April. He has punched out 17 of 44 (38.6%) batters faced at Triple-A, including season-high 8 strikeouts in his most recent outing on June 15 vs. Tacoma (L, 4.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R-ER, 2 BB, 8 SO, 1 HR, 79 pitches/55 strikes).

A 3-time Cy Young Award winner (2013, 2016-17) and 8-time All-Star, Scherzer enters today’s scheduled start ranked 12th in Major League history with 3,367 career strikeouts, one of only 19 pitches all-time to record 3,000-or-more strikeouts. He ranks 2nd among active pitchers in career strikeouts to only Houston’s Justin Verlander (3,393) and is just 4 whiffs shy of tying Greg Maddux (3,371) for 11th-most all-time. Scherzer also places among active MLB hurlers in career SO/9 (2nd, 10.69), starts (2nd, 448), innings (2nd, 2834.2), wins (3rd, 214), and ERA (3rd, 3.15).

The St. Louis, Mo. native went 4-2 with a 3.20 ERA (16 ER/45.0 IP), 53 strikeouts/15 walks, and a .174 opp. BA (28-161) over 8 starts for the Rangers in 2023 after he was acquired from the New York Mets on July 30, 2023. He combined to go 13-6, 3.77 ERA (64 ER/152.2 IP) with 174 strikeouts across 27 games/starts with New York-NL (19 starts) and Texas (8 starts), as his 10.26 SO/9 figure was the 7th-highest mark ever by a pitcher in his age 38-or-older season (min. 150.0 IP).

A 16-year MLB veteran, Scherzer owns a lifetime 214-108 record, 3.15 ERA (991 ER/2834.2 IP), and 3,367 strikeouts over 457 appearances/448 starts with Arizona (2008-09), Detroit (2010-14), Washington (2015-2021), Los Angeles-NL (2021), New York-NL (2022-23), and Texas (2023).

The 26-year-old Rodríguez did not appear for Texas following his most recent recall on June 18. Over 3 stints with Texas this season (Opening Day-April 14, May 3-27, June 18-22), the right-hander has gone 1-0 with a 6.88 ERA (13 ER/17.0 IP) and 11 walks/12 strikeouts in 12 relief appearances.

With today’s transactions, Texas has a full 40-man roster, along with seven players on the 60-day Injured List: Cody Bradford, Carson Coleman, Jacob deGrom, Justin Foscue, Josh Jung, Tyler Mahle, Austin Pruitt.