DETROIT — Jack Leiter was just a toddler when he approached a preschool classmate and asked, “What team does your dad play for?”
This is how baseball was ingrained in the Leiter family. This is how the expectation of becoming a major league pitcher has always felt normalized.
“I just thought everyone was playing baseball,” Leiter said Wednesday at Comerica Park. “For my 5-year-old, it was an expected thing. As you get older, it was a dream, a goal, and then you start to visualize it, and then it becomes a reality.
On Thursday in Detroit, this pitcher jumped up and headed to the mound before the rest of his Texas Rangers teammates. He was getting hot and sweat was glistening on his forehead. He retired his first major league batter on three pitches.
Jack Leiter’s first MLB strikeout.
3 Location K. pic.twitter.com/Tuv7R75ddS
– Rob Friedman (@PichingNinja) April 18, 2024
For so long, this sort of ease was the entire Jack Leiter story. Soft and dominant. Predestined to do one thing extremely well. On Thursday, the Leiter family made history. Jack’s father, Al, and Al’s brother, Mark, both pitched in the major leagues. Through Jack and Mark Leiter Jr., the elder Leiters became the first set of brothers to produce sons who also pitched in the majors.
“There’s a lot of talk in our family, pitch conversations,” Leiter said.
Seeing Leiter reach this point was no surprise to anyone who followed him. Leiter was a highly regarded prospect with a 0.65 ERA as a high schooler in New Jersey. He pitched 20 2/3 consecutive no-hit innings at Vanderbilt. He was drafted No. 2 in 2021 and came to the Rangers with inflated expectations.
His first major league start, however, proved to be a trying outing. For two years, it has become the new challenge in Jack Leiter’s life. What happens after failure?
When the walks piled up and runs continued to cross home plate, Leiter heard it again and again. It will make you better.
“Right now,” Leiter said, “you don’t really want to hear it.”
The right-hander with a gravity-fighting fastball was touted as a potential star when he was drafted. But two years into his professional career, he was losing ground in the prospect rankings, most recently ranked the Rangers’ No. 14 prospect by Athleticism. His cheers died down as Leiter struggled to master the fastball command that once made him arguably the most projectable pitching prospect in the draft. He walked 5.4 batters per nine innings in 2022 and 5.2 in 2023. He had a 5.54 ERA in his first professional season and a 5.19 ERA in his second year.
“I had periods at university where I got off to a rough start. It launches,” Leiter said. “But nothing like what I experienced my first two years in the minor leagues.”
The Rangers placed Leiter on the developmental list twice last season to address his command issues, once in June and again in July. The Development Roster is a player development mission aimed at improvement. Objectively, an improvement is exactly what Leiter needed.
“Coming into 2022, I had the highest expectations,” Leiter said. “And then you get punched in the mouth over and over again, and you start to realize, ‘OK, what can I do better?'”
After this thorough examination, Leiter’s mechanics were cleaned. There were subtle changes in his posture and the rotation of his lower body. Leiter, however, says the biggest difference is in his mental approach.
“I think it was really important,” Leiter said of the failure. “From there, my whole new process and routine was born. I don’t know if I would have adopted that later in my career if I hadn’t gone through those struggles.
The mindset of a competitor who has never failed has transformed into a deeper know-how. Two years ago, Leiter said, he went into every outing “just focusing on dominating hitters and wanting to throw a complete game shutout, no-hitters, all that.”
Over time this evolved. “It was about taking a step back, understanding that none of this happens if you focus on those things rather than ‘that field,’” Leiter said.
And just when Leiter’s career seemed to be falling apart, something funny happened. He showed up to spring training throwing balls. The fast forward pitcher drafted by the Rangers has re-emerged. He was pushing for a roster spot in late spring. And although he ultimately didn’t make the cut, the Rangers left Arizona feeling excited about Jack Leiter again.
“The way he threw the ball in spring training, I knew he would be here at some point,” manager Bruce Bochy said.
With his mechanics cleaned up and his mental process refined, he went to Triple-A and proved he was ready for the big leagues. In his first three outings, Leiter threw a total of 14 1/3 innings. He walked only three batters and struck out 25.
“He spent a lot of time this winter getting back to being the guy the Rangers drafted two years ago,” Bochy said.
On Tuesday morning, Leiter planned to drive himself from the Triple-A site in Round Rock, Texas, to the team’s next series in Sugar Land, just outside Houston. The night before, Round Rock manager Doug Davis texted Leiter: Stop on the ground first.
Leiter arrived at the ballpark the next morning. He walked into Davis’ office and found the entire coaching staff waiting. They informed him he was going to start in Detroit on Thursday.
“It was a shock,” Leiter said, “but it was great.”
Naturally, Leiter’s first call was to his father, the man who pitched 19 seasons in MLB, appeared in two All-Star Games, won two World Series and threw a no-hitter.
“It’s definitely a pinch thing,” Al told NJ.com. “A proud moment for dad. …I definitely had tears in my eyes because I know the work it takes to get there. And they just don’t distribute them.
This call symbolizes the emotions that accompany debuting in the major leagues. Pride. Thoughts on playing catch in the yard. A feeling of accomplishment. It’s special, even for someone like Jack Leiter, someone who planned this day a long time ago.
“It was a long conversation,” he said. “I was a little mentally blacked out at that point.”
Soon, Leiter was on the mound at Comerica Park, with his father and family watching from a suite.
Leiter’s three-pitch strikeout against Riley Greene looked like it could set the tone for a dazzling day. But from the second round, Leiter was in difficulty. He walked Colt Keith to start the inning and gave up two singles, a double and a triple before finally recording the third out. Leiter recovered with a 1-2-3 in the third set.
But by the fourth inning Thursday, Leiter handed the baseball to Bochy and left the mound to head toward the dugout. A poorly played ball by Leody Taveras on the central wall of the field allowed two points to be scored. And rather than end the inning, that play set up a Spencer Torkelson double that ended Leiter’s day with a seriously blemished line: eight hits, seven earned runs, three walks and three outs. batting in 3 2/3 innings in the 9-7 Rangers. victory against the Detroit Tigers.
Leiter’s fastball and slider showed their flash at times. But more often than not, his best offering was hit and hit hard. The Tigers had an average exit velocity of 99.2 mph on 11 balls in play against Leiter’s vaunted fastball.
The Leiter we saw on Thursday reflected both sides of his story: electric at times. Erratic in others. He left the match with a bitter taste. “A lot of frustration,” he said.
After the game, Leiter reunited with his family on the field. He said it was the moment he would remember most.
He’ll soon be back on a major league mound, with one more lesson in hand.
(Top photo: Duane Burleson/Getty Images)