Former No. 2 pick Jack Leiter earns call-up from Rangers

 Former No. 2 pick Jack Leiter earns call-up from Rangers

Jack Leiter, the former No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 MLB draft, gets the news every young baseball player hopes to hear in his life: Getting called up to the big leagues. The news regarding his call-up was reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan earlier Tuesday, with the plan being to have Leiter debut on Thursday against the Detroit Tigers.

The Texas Rangers are calling up right-hander Jack Leiter, the No. 2 pick in the 2021 draft. In 14.1 innings at AAA this season, he has struck out 25 and walked three while allowing four home runs. He'll start the final game of their series against Detroit on Thursday.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 16, 2024

The son of two-time all-star Al Leiter. Jack shot up draft boards after two dominant years at Vanderbilt. But the first couple years of Leiter’s minor league career weren’t going great.

He always had the stuff but just struggled to locate it on a consistent basis, causing him to give up way too many walks and just make his life more difficult.

But in 2024, Jack Leiter has seemingly turned a leaf and found his groove. Through three outings with Triple-A Round Rock, he has posted a 3.77 ERA with 25 strikeouts to just three walks. That K:BB ratio is what really stands out to me. It’s been his Achilles heel so far, but if he can bring that command to the MLB, I don’t see why he can’t succeed.

What is certain is that the Rangers need Leiter to produce almost immediately. They are still waiting for guys like Max Scherzer, and Jacob deGrom to come back from injury … then Cody Bradford, who looked great to start the year gets put on the IL.

The point is, the Rangers are incredibly thin at pitcher right now, so you might as well see what you got with a guy like Leiter. It’s still early in the year, so you aren’t throwing him into super high-leverage spots right away.

Worst case, you can see what you got with Leiter, then send him back down with specific things to work on once the rotation gets a little healthier.

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Or, maybe, Leiter shoves and forces the Rangers to keep him on the active roster. I always love seeing the new guys, so I certainly will be rooting for that.

Plus we share the same first name. How do I not root for the guy?

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