Mahle was coming off May 2023 Tommy John surgery when the Rangers signed him to a back-loaded deal heading into 2024. It was a two-year, $22MM guarantee, with the Rangers knowing they likely wouldn’t get much in 2024. As such, they only paid him $5.5MM in the first year, followed by $16.5MM in 2025 with $5MM also available in incentives.

Plus, while Mahle is off to a terrific start, Joc Pederson is off to his own historic start to 2025 ... but not in a good way.

Tyler Mahle flies under the radar. After all, he’s in the middle of a rotation headed by the likes of Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi, and he’s alongside two of baseball’s best pitching prospects in Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker.