April 18: Texas officially selected Leiter’s contract on Thursday morning. The Rangers optioned Grant Anderson to Triple-A in a corresponding move. To create space on the 40-man roster, they transferred lefty reliever Brock Burke to the 60-day injured list. Burke broke his non-throwing hand last week and will now be out of action until at least the middle of June.
April 16: The Rangers announced this morning that top pitching prospect Jack Leiter will have his contract selected to the major league roster and make his big league debut Thursday against the Tigers. Texas has a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move to accommodate the right-hander, whom they drafted with the No. 2 overall pick in 2021.
It’s an early birthday present for Leiter, who’ll turn 24 just three days after making his long-awaited debut. The second-generation talent is the son of two-time World Series champion and two-time All-Star Al Leiter, the nephew of 11-year MLB veteran Mark Leiter, and the cousin of current Cubs setup man Mark Leiter Jr.
The fourth Leiter to reach the majors, Jack hasn’t had the most straightforward path to the show despite his considerable draft and prospect pedigree. He annihilated hitters in college ball at Vanderbilt, fanning 41% of his opponents in two seasons prior to being drafted, but struggled with command following an aggressive assignment to Double-A right out of the gate.
Leiter walked more than 13% of his opponents and posted an ERA north of 5.00 in each of his first two seasons at the Double-A level but has been an absolute monster in his first three Triple-A appearances this season. In 14 1/3 innings, he’s punched out 25 of his 57 opponents (43.9%), walked only three (5.3%) and surrendered just 11 hits. Four of those, unfortunately, have left the yard and saddled Leiter with a 3.77 ERA that’s far less impressive than his overpowering K-BB profile would otherwise suggest, but it’s hard not to be encouraged by the strikeout and walk trends. That’s especially true given that Leiter also pitched 12 2/3 innings for Texas this spring and posted a much-improved 9.6% walk rate in that short time as well.
Texas’ rotation has been hammered by injuries. Jacob deGrom, signed to a five-year contract in the 2022-23 offseason, opened the year on the 60-day injured list after undergoing Tommy John surgery last June. Max Scherzer, acquired at least year’s trade deadline, required offseason back surgery to repair a herniated disc. Twenty-six-year old southpaw Cody Bradford was a godsend through three starts to begin the season (1.40 ERA) … until he suffered a lower back strain of his own and was subsequently placed on the 15-day IL.
Leiter will step onto a starting staff that’s in flux. Veteran righty Michael Lorenzen, who inked a one-year deal late in spring training, made his Rangers debut yesterday with five shutout frames over his former Tigers teammates (albeit with five walks against four strikeouts). Veteran lefty Andrew Heaney would’ve been on tap for Thursday’s start, but he’s yet to last five innings in any of his three starts while pitching to a 6.75 ERA. It seems Leiter will overtake that spot, at least for the time being.
That all points to a rotation that’ll include Lorenzen, Leiter, Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray and Wednesday’s starter Dane Dunning — at least for the time being. It’s not clear how long a leash Leiter will be given if he struggles out of the gate, though one would imagine the Rangers are planning to give him multiple starts following his initial call to the big leagues. Manager Bruce Bochy and/or general manager Chris Young will presumably expand on the team’s plans for their young righty in the days to come.
Leiter’s 2022-23 struggles were enough to drop him off prospect rankings, meaning he’s ineligible for MLB’s prospect promotion incentives. He won’t accrue a full year of service time, given the lack of sufficient time remaining on the calendar, nor can he net the Rangers a draft pick based on his Rookie of the Year voting. As it stands, he’ll be controllable through the 2030 season and is set up on pace to reach Super Two status, granting him four trips through the arbitration process rather than the standard three. The first of those arb-eligible offseasons would come in the winter of 2026-27, though future optional assignments could yet impact both his free agent timeline and arbitration status.
SNAP! Big day today
Chris Berman would say there’s another “Cigarette Leiter” in the bigs.
Is Berman still around?
Seemed to have had control issues until this year. Performed well even in PCL so far this year
Self control issues lighting up cigarettes or what do you mean?
Seems like a good time to promote him for a look. He is averaging over a strikeout per inning.
I’m sure good ol’ dad is behind this. What a helicopter parent !
He was averaging nearly two per inning
Him and a thousand other pitchers.
You’re right, Jim. And they’ll all have TJS to become bionic, and while they’re out they’ll be replaced by yet another clone that the team doesn’t care about.
Today’s MLB is a complete and utter train wreck.
Let me go ahead and accuse the Rangers of prospect tampering with zero evidence.
What’s the matter, guys? Trying to save a few bucks? Stop being so cheap.
?
I think he is trying to defend the Orioles ridiculous excuse for not having Holiday on the opening day roster. Like Leiter has performed any where near the levels as Holiday.
@Mets6986??
5 G
52.6 K%
0.0 BB%
-81 wRC+
Just not ready… Needs more seasoning in the minors.
Based on Holliday’s start, the O’s may have brought him up too soon.
Didn’t you say the Mets were done after 5 games?
A whole 5 games. Talk to me after 20.
@Mets6986??
The Mets are already done. They’re playing to their current ability. Based on fWAR, they should be an 8-8 team and they are an 8-8 team. If you want to save your time and do something more productive, you don’t need to watch the Mets this season as it’s already a write-off.
We’ll see what happens, but the jump from AA to AAA is nothing compared to the jump from AAA to MLB.
They are playing to there level. There 8-3 since you said they were fine against real good teams.
@Mets6986??
Wouldn’t 162 be better, given that baseball is more of a evaluation for longer-term? 20 means nothing at all. In 2022, Mike Trout went 0-26 before getting a hit against Boston and going 1-2 in that game.
@Mets6986??
Yes, they were underperforming when they started but are now back to playing around where they should be.
172 would be better. You just gave him a 5 game sample size to send him back to the minors.
@Mets6986??
Relax, I’m making fun of your post about how Holliday is some mega star but really just fizzled out when he appears in the majors.
Based on his minor career, I think he pans out with a slash line of: 0.263 / 0.369 / 0.407. He’ll fluctuate up and down between that line.
Mets – Then what is your take on the O’s calling up Jackson early enough to get his year’s service time?
He might do that for this season but it will jump up in seasons to come. The power will increase year to year. He will eventually become a 30 hr season player.
Old – You’re saying he needs more O-regan-O?
I really don’t think Holiday is ready for the bigs . There is already bust articles surrounding him.
nailz – He definitely doesn’t show the confidence and composure that you’d hope from a rookie. They kept putting the cameras on his family when he was playing in Boston last week, the look of disappointment on their faces was sad.
I’m beginning to wonder if they brought him up only because of the massive backlash they received for sending him down.
New owner’s decision?
I’m officially declaring Holliday a bust. NEXT!!! ; )
LOL “there”.
“Let me go ahead and accuse”…So if teams don’t promote prospects they’re accused of “service time manipulation ” and if they do promote them, they’re accused of being “cheap”. It’s no wonder many teams have learned that often, you just have to ignore the noise of “fans” in the peanut gallery, right njbirdsfan?
kwERA of 0.768 so far this year in a small sample size. For his minors career, he has a kwERA of 3.43, so that seems like a more realistic range + about 18% of regression to 4.18. All the best to his career.
hahahahaha
Hopefully he figured it out. He seemed like a sure thing when he was drafted.
Same here. Thought he and Meyer were head and shoulders above the rest for top 2 spots talent wise, then both struggled right away. meyer has had injuries and leiter just struggled.
Another thing is texas exposed Justin Slaten in the rule5 draft this past offseason, who early looks like a flat out steal as a pitcher. if texas is that low on pitching.. Why expose a guy, with 2 nice off speed and an upper 90’s fb to the rule 5 draft?
Leiters all over the place.
Believe that’s called a Liter.
Like a hair metal concert.
Makes sense to have his first career start come against the Tigers offense. Should be a nice confidence boost going forward.
Well shows what I know
2 good innings and they rushed him…..can’t say it was earned but congrats i guess. Rangers way
He’s pitched 14 innings this year… it’s has always been about control. If Leiter isn’t walking people he will be fine, his stuff is pretty good. Plus the PCL is a notoriously tough place to pitch. I’m all for this I think we left White and Winn in AAA too long and it shot their confidence. Tampa just freaking skips AAA altogether sometimes.
Dbacks need to skip AAA or move the team from Reno back to Tucson. That launching pad is a disaster for pitching development. The lack of consistent pitching production for them is well-documented over the years. Right now their most recent crop of Pfaadt, Jameson, Nelson, Henry, Frias, Cecconi, Jarvis, and Walston is littered with ineffectiveness and injury. This group was highly-touted but does not have a single success story as of yet. And don’t cite Pfaadt’s excellent October of last year (which was great). He needs to do it in the regular season.
MLB pretty much assigns minor league affiliates now. Its.not.like it used to be.
Tampa is the slowest in MLB to get to the bigs….very very rarely jump more than 1 level in a single season and it usually takes to 2 season of dominant ball to level up
The Rangers need rotation help now. Mid season they have guys coming back from injury they can send him back down then if needed. Right now they need help.
SeRvIcE tImE mAnIpUlAtIoN !
He isn’t going to be up all year.
Not a chance, Leiter was pretty bad last year he needed to start in the minors and prove he can throw strikes
Good for himm. He has earned the chance to play MLB…
Hope he sticks. One of my favorite college prospects in a while. Hope Rocker can have a good big league career too eventually.
Jack “Cigarette” Leiter.
I’m all for service time manipulation. Why should they draft a guy pay him a huge signing bonus and it’s still unlikely he makes it, just to give away a year of service time so they can massively overpay them earlier than they need to.The player does what’s best for the player there’s no reason the team shouldn’t do what’s best for them. And in this case there was no service time manipulation because he hadn’t otherwise been good in the minors until this year.
I actually think theyre calling him up prematurely. Three starts is nice but I’d want to see more since his control was so bad the last two years.
Rangers,mariners,Rockies and rays. 4 teams left without a ws
Jack comes from a great family. I’m happy for him taking the final leap to the majors. I’m not a Rangers fan obviously but how is K. Rocker doing? Is he next?
“Kumar Rocker doing”…Dr.
Scott Boras lied about the health of Kumar Rocker’s arm and it’s unlikely we’ll see him this year, since he recently underwent Tommy John surgery.
Did you miss the world series last year, Hotdog?
I’m thinking he’s trolling. Hence the reason he hasn’t responded.
When did Milwaukee and San Diego win World Series titles? Did I just dream the Rangers won one while Milwaukee and San Diego were winning their titles? Lol
this isn’t going to end well.
“that’s far less impressive than his overpowering K-BB profile would otherwise suggest, but it’s hard not to be encouraged by the strikeout and walk trends”….They better start teaching these young kids to pitch and not try to strike everyone out, or it’ll be a short trip to Tommy John surgery. That being said, I wish the latest member of the Leiter pitching family good luck and health in his journey thru the Major Leagues.
I’m intrigued by this call-up, but I feel a little uneasy about Leiter.
I would’ve had more interest and emotions if I hadn’t heard about the fate of Whitey Herzog…
The note about his ineligibility to participate in the prospect promotion plan reminds me of how I dislike the concept. Baseball writers are actively determining if a team receives a draft pick from two directions – the folks who put together the Prospect Rankings (which include Baseball America and ESPN) determine who is eligible for the program, and the baseball writers who vote for RotY, Cy Young, and MVP actually can with their votes guarantee a team a pick. Just not appropriate.
So what’s your solution? Don’t complain unless you have an alternative.
Why? Someone cant voice dissatisfaction with something without having a plan to address it?
@stymee
Easy to have a solution. Make ALL rookies eligible for the incentive. Don’t drill down to a top 100 list.
Plenty of quality ML’ers that never cracked a list. Let alone the 2/3 that they require for the bonus.
A litter of Leiters.
lol
So Jack Leiter is the cousin of Mark Leiter Jr.,correct?
Yes.
Al Leiter and Mark Leiter are brothers. Mark Leiter Sr. is Jack’s uncle.
Mark sr. was terrible for the Giants in ’96, but they got Woody in a trade with the Expos!
I’m guessing they’ve brought him up to help out the rotation arms as the rangers are in game 12 of 17 straight.
He’s done much better this year. He’s still just as homer prone but he hasn’t given nearly as many walks as years past, hence the better results. Looking forward to seeing him in the bigs but not so sure he’s here to stay.
When the parents split the chromosomes between the two brothers , Al seems to have got the better genes.
I’m very happy with how The Rangers are bringing up the youth. Some are long awaited, like Jack here, but it is a positive sign that we are taking these risks on our farm. I’m loving CY more and more.
Leiter should switch to being a reliever. Hes just not good enough after 1 time through the lineup. He’d be one of the best setup guys in baseball. Definetly not closer material though
Feel like Rangers blew-it being so aggressive right out of the gate to assign em to AA for 1st pro experience. Yea, he was stud @vandy but Ps can be fragile especially their psyche. Let em start in A ball n kick sum ass n get lil footing underneath em 1st, if he’s as great as they hoped he’d quickly make them move em up to nxt level. Holiday will be just fine. Problem w/em is he’s never faced real obstacles or had any sort of hardships to work his way out of cause he’s so damn good. Not bad for 20yrs ol, in the show, and your 1st ever hiccup as professional is @highest level. My money’s on the kid having nice solid career. He’ll figure it out.
So pitching in A instead of AA was going to improve his command? That’s ceratinly…a take. It doesn’t matter what league you pitch in, walking 5 per 9ip generally isn’t gonna work.
I don’t think it’s crazy to think that pitching in single A *could* have helped his command, to a degree. Facing higher caliber hitters, some pitchers try to be too fine with their command.
Have you watched him pitch or are you just commenting while ignorant? This isn’t a, “trying to be too fine” issue.
I haven’t watched any Texas Rangers Double A baseball, no. If you took the time to read, you’d notice I used the words “could” and “some” in my comment. You, on the other hand, made a blanket statement that “it doesn’t matter what league you pitch in”, as if it’s true for every single pitcher ever.
If you want to throw stones, sell your glass house.
I’m both excited to watch the stud prospect, nephew of one of my favorites to debut; and also hope that he gets rocked so my M’s pull within a 1/2 game, setting up the opportunity to pull ahead this weekend.
Third hyped rangers prospect this year that stinks
“Four of those, unfortunately, have left the yard…“
That’s a stupid way to write it. This is far better:
“Unfortunately, four of those have left the yard…”
I disagree I think both are equally valid
The former sounds better to the ear.
Remarkable season so far for the Rangers, with their patchwork rotation.
Nice work, too, getting 6 years of Dane Dunning for one year of Lance Lynn at 1/10m. 150 innings a year, 102 ERA+… well done.
Nepobaby
Is baseball just in the Leiter blood or what