The Texas Rangers are one pitcher away from fielding an entire starting rotation on the injured list.
As of Tuesday, they have Cody Bradford, Tyler Mahle, Max Scherzer, and Jacob deGrom on the shelf.
Nathan Eovaldi (2.92 ERA) has been his usual reliable self, but outside of Michael Lorenzen and his tiny workload so far (five scoreless innings), the rest of the staff has an ERA over 4.30: Jon Gray (4.38), Dane Dunning (4.50), and Andrew Heaney (6.75).
The reigning World Series champions are looking for more talented arms to contribute to the rotation, so they decided to bring up one of their top pitching prospects.
“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,” MLB insider Jeff Passan tweeted.
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
Leiter, the second overall pick of the 2021 MLB Draft after Henry Davis, had shown a difficulty to control and command his pitches in his first couple of seasons in the minor leagues.
He had a 5.54 ERA in 92.2 Double-A innings in 2022, and he repeated the level in 2023 and posted an equally mediocre 5.07 ERA in 81.2 frames.
It took him two years, but he finally made some strides throwing strikes consistently in 2024.
In 14.1 innings this year in Triple-A, his ERA stands at 3.77, but his SO/BB ratio is a brilliant 25/3.
The sample is very small, but the Rangers are willing to give him a shot on Thursday to see how he looks.
Then, they will go from there and let his performance decide the next steps.
Leiter has always been capable of missing bats, but control held him back.
If he is truly behind those issues, 2024 could very well be a breakout year for him.
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