Leiter picked up where he left off in 2025 with both his increasing maturity and his 'elite' repertoire.
Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jack Leiter delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Monday, March 30, 2026, in Baltimore.is still a relatively new concept around here.
So, as a public service, we’d like to provide you with this handy guide to help recognize when a young pitcher has developed into a full-grown starter. No. 1: When faced with a problem on the mound, the pitcher doesn’t necessarily have to look to the dugout or behind home plate for solutions, he just kinda solves them., Leiter might have been a little excited about his first start of the year. Might have been exaggerating some mechanical components in his delivery. Might have led to a delivery that was a little off balance. It did lead to falling behind Baltimore hitters, then having to throw fastballs to a team that was hunting them like they were wittle wabbits.So, what did Leiter do? He simply diagnosed the problem, slowed himself down, got out of a sketchy first inning and then recentered. Yes, Nathan Eovaldi did mention the bigger shoulder turn in the delivery. Yes, pitching coach Jordan Tiegs and catcher Kyle Higashioka were there if he had questions. But, mostly, he’d already solved the issue. “I think you know what you need to do in that instance is understand you limit the damage, you get through the inning and you get a breather and just go,” Leiter said after working through six innings and allowing a pair of runs. “It was kind of the worst way you could start off the game, 1-0, 2-0, to every guy. There wasn't like a long conversation or a real big adjustment. There was a little bit of a mechanical cue, from .“I think the other thing was they kind of showed us what their approach was early and until they showed us differently, we were going to assume they were going to be on time for the fastball. So, we threw four-seam fastballs, maybe the fewest I’ve ever thrown them in a game, but that’s what the game called for and that’s what we did.”that gets more visible with each passing segment of time. First, he had to command the fastball; did that last spring. Then he needed to find something offspeed; he introduced a much more consistent “kick” change. And when the time calls for it, he can pitch with the change and his secondary stuff, as he did Monday.Leiter threw just 16 four-seam fastballs, only 11 of them after the first inning. More than half of his pitches were changeups and sliders. Even threw a half-dozen of his brand new cutter. Threw them all in typical fastball counts. Swings and misses piled up. He ended up with 21 swings and misses, the fourth-highest total in baseball over this first week of the season. It was a career high for him, leading to eight strikeouts.“The changeup was elite tonight,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “Righty, lefty didn't really matter. It just seemed like a carryover from his last start last year. And I think this is who he's going to be. You are going to see more of this version of Jack throughout the year.”at Cleveland, a team that was fighting to clinch a playoff spot. He struck out 10 in that game, walked none and left his rookie season feeling pretty good about himself. Felt better, too, when Mark DeRosa asked him if he’d pitch a game in relief for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic., but it’s the thought that counts, right? All of that led to a more convicted Leiter throughout spring training.Over his last 10 starts, dating back to last year, Leiter has a 3.43 ERA and a 4-to-1 strikeout-to-walk rate. No, it’s not quiteterritory, but, then again, deGrom has the best strikeout-to-walk rate in MLB history. So, in this case, close, is, in fact, good enough. It’s been a remarkable start for the Rangers, who have won three of their first four games — all on the road — and that’s despite losing in Nathan Eovaldi’s first outing and not yet seeing deGrom, due to a stiff neck.. But since Eovaldi’s outing, the rotation has put together a 2.35 ERA and 0.783 WHIP over 15 ⅓ innings. Sure, small sample size, but also a continuation of last year’s success.. The Rangers forced Chris Bassitt and Baltimore’s relievers to throw 181 pitches. Last year, the swing-first, think-later Rangers forced teams to throw at least that many pitches 12 times. And eight of those were extra-inning games. “We were relentless up there,” Schumaker said. “We just couldn’t get the big hit and that’s OK. As long as there is traffic every game, we will take our chances. The guys will come through.”Or put more directly: Enough. They will come through enough. Especially when they’ve got a host of mature starting pitchers able to diagnose and assess their issues on the mound before the game gets out of hand. Jack Leiter now seems to be part of that group.
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