Jack Leiter’s latest start for Texas Rangers wasn’t perfect, but showed progress (2024)

Jack Leiter’s latest start for Texas Rangers wasn’t perfect, but was progress

ARLINGTON — The hope is that Jack Leiter won’t have to do this much longer. The hope — one shared by both he and the Texas Rangers — is that, one day, the former first-round draft choice will not be asked to unpack every minute data point, moment, positive, negative and big-picture takeaway from each major league start.

One day.

Not Monday, though. Not after his toughest big-league test yet in the midst of a month that is designed for the 24-year-old — by way of the Rangers’ own standing — to experience something of a runway, showcase and tryout in the starting rotation.

Not after he, even if evaluated by the toughest of graders, handled said test as well — if not better — than any other he’d yet faced with the Rangers.

“Any time you take the ball you want the team to have another win in the win column, didn’t happen tonight,” Leiter said. “but, a lot of positives.”

To that point: On a micro, box score-centric level, Leiter’s fifth major league start vs. the New York Yankees on Monday at Globe Life Field culminated in his second major league loss and an 8-4 Rangers loss. He pitched five innings and allowed five earned runs on seven hits, two strikeouts and zero walks. It placed Texas’ slow-starting offense in a difficult hole vs. Yankees starter Gerrit Cole. But, on a macro, development-based level, Leiter’s second home start test yielded more signs of encouragement than otherwise.

Because, make no mistake, Monday’s game vs. New York was an on-paper mismatch for the rookie. Leiter’s first four major league starts were against teams that rank bottom-third leaguewide in on base plus slugging percentage vs. right-handed pitchers: the Chicago White Sox (.618, 30th), the Detroit Tigers (.685, 22nd), the Cleveland Guardians (.693, 21st) and the Oakland Athletics (.696, 20th).

The Yankees, with a .796 OPS, hit righties better than any other team in baseball. That’s sixth-tenths of a percentage point higher than last year’s Rangers, for reference, and it’s thanks in large part to the combination of Aaron Judge (league-best 1.141 OPS vs. RHP) and Juan Soto (1.025 OPS vs. RHP, the fifth-best) will do that.

The two went a combined 0 for 4 against Leiter in their first two respective at bats. He held Soto to two groundouts — the first of which was a hard-hit double-play ball in the first inning — and held Judge, the American League MVP front runner, to a scorching 111.4 mph flyout and a strikeout.

Leiter allowed two runs in the third inning on two singles from Volpe and Alex Verdugo to set up a two-run Gleyber Torres double, but got Judge to swing-and-miss at a curveball low and out of the strike zone for the inning’s third out with a runner at third base. That was the second of eight consecutive New York batters that Leiter retired between the third and fifth innings. He attacked the strike zone in the first five innings, limited his missed pitches and commanded a fastball that ran on averaged 97.2 mph.

“I felt good about my stuff,” said Leiter, who was drafted out of high school by the Yankees before he signed with Vanderbilt. “I felt, execution-wise, that’s the best it’s been up here so far for me. Then it becomes a conversation of navigating lineups a little better and pitch selection here and there.”

On that topic: Judge and Soto went a combined 2 for 2 against Leiter in the sixth and chased him from the game. Leiter, who had not pitched into the sixth inning of a major league game prior to Monday, allowed a leadoff single to Torres before Soto hit Leiter’s fastball into center field for a single and Judge turned on one for a run-scoring double to make it a 3-1 game. He exited the game with two runners on; by the time the inning had ended, after Chase Anderson relieved Leiter, the Yankees held a 7-1 lead.

“It’s kind of a dream scenario that you hope to get into,” Leiter said. “Pitching deeper into a game, in the sixth inning, a Cy Young award winner on the other side and an MVP at the plate. Didn’t get it done in the sixth, but it’s obviously an awesome situation to find myself in.”

Said Rangers manager Bruce Bochy: “He’s the best guy to have out there [to start the sixth]. We’re not going to be too careful with this kid. He’s been around the game. He’s not in awe of anything.”

Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe — Leiter’s close friend and former teammate at Delbarton School in Morristown, N.J. — went 1 for 2 against him. He flew out to left field in the top of the fifth inning in his second at bat and came a few feet short of a home run. The two smirked at each other as Volpe trotted back toward the visitor’s dugout.

“I know how hard he worked throughout everything,” Volpe said before the game. “We kind of went [on] a little bit different paths, but just to reconvene and have each other to lean on each other with whatever we’re going through is super special.”

Yes, Leiter has worked hard to stabilize his professional career after two discouraging minor league seasons to start it. He tinkered with his delivery at the club’s facility in Arizona on multiple developmental list trips. He sought the help of a sports psychologist. He established a new routine and process that, he believes, has helped simplify the game down. On Monday, Leiter said, he made a conscious effort to slow himself down on the mound. It worked.

And, yet, there’s still more work to be done. That’s why — with under a month remaining in what has shaped up to be a noncompetitive September for the Rangers — he is here. The Yankees still rocked him for eight batted balls that carried an exit velocity of 100 mph or harder. His command loosened in the sixth and forced him to pitch from behind against the heart of New York’s order.

There will be more starts left this season to dissect the missteps.

Monday’s had more wins than not.

“The progress, you see it each time out,” Bochy said. “The confidence is growing with him.”

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