Jack Leiter Is Finally Delivering on the Hype

The outing grabbed the attention of people across the game, including our own Aram Leighton, as you can see above.

It also got the attention of the Rangers front office. So when the team had played itself out of playoff contention come late August, it was time to get the young arm some consistent reps at the big league level.

In his last six games with the Rangers in 2024, Leiter pitched 26.1 innings with a 6.15 ERA and 24 strikeouts. Overall for 2024, Leiter’s big league ERA was 8.83.

Even with his better performances later in the season, the Leiter hype train was still off the tracks.

Forced Into the Rangers’ Rotation

The good news is that Leiter didn’t listen to or care about any of the murmurings surrounding him. He continued to develop his craft and get ready for what 2025 might hold.

It started with a strong showing in spring training. Leiter pitched in six games, half as a starter and half out of the bullpen.

He threw 20.2 innings during the spring with 21 strikeouts and a 3.48 ERA. It was looking like the youngster had pitched his way onto the Opening Day roster. Not as a starter, but as a long reliever.

The rotation was set with Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Tyler Mahle, Jon Gray, and Cody Bradford. But late in the spring, both Gray and Bradford went down with serious injuries, and it opened up two spots in the rotation.

Leiter was one of the obvious internal choices to fill a vacant rotation spot. As his rookie campaign kicked off, Leiter found himself not only on the roster but in a big league rotation.

Still, there were no guarantees he would stay there very long. If he had struggled early, the club would have looked elsewhere for an arm to take his spot.

Leiter Has Been Dealing

It did get a little dicey for Leiter. After dominating in his first two outings of the season, Leiter would have to go on the IL with a blister on his throwing hand.

Once he came back at the end of April, his performances were not quite as shiny. Over his next 14 games (from the end of April through the All-Star break), Leiter pitched to a 4.86 ERA.

Not the worst, but not what was expected out of the highly touted flame thrower.

But since the All-Star break, Leiter has been pitching terrifically.

The velocity has always been there, but the command and secondary pitches have taken longer to develop. Over Leiter’s last 10 starts, he has thrown 52 innings with 61 strikeouts and a 2.94 ERA.

Walks have still been an issue at times, but he has learned to navigate around them better when they do occur. Leiter has also reduced his home runs allowed over the second half of the season.

Before the All-Star break, Leiter had given up 10 bombs, but he has only allowed four since.

The Rangers Might Have Themselves a Future Ace

According to MLB.com’s glossary, “an ace typically refers to a team’s No. 1 pitcher, though it can also be used to describe an elite pitcher in general. Therefore, a team with multiple elite pitchers is said to have more than one ace.”

Barring injuries, the Rangers already have two aces on their team for next year in deGrom and Eovaldi. But who is to say that they can’t have trip aces and not just a pair?

Leiter has the high-velocity fastball and nasty slider that many of today’s aces deploy. With his four-seamer averaging 97.3 mph this season, there is plenty of gas in the tank.

The pitch mix has been much better in 2025, and that should help Leiter push himself further into the elite pitching stratosphere moving forward.

Leiter’s changup is becoming more and more of a weapon. It sits between 90-91 mph and is devastating to lefties. It has become his third most-used pitch this year, coming in at a 16% use rate.

With the physical skill set along with the mental toughness, there is little doubt that Leiter will continue to shine.

One thing to remember is that Leiter is only 25 years old. Yes, there were expectations that he would dominate only a year or two out of college, but it has taken closer to four.

DeGrom didn’t make his MLB debut until he was nearly 26 years old. Eovaldi didn’t truly come into his own until his late twenties and even more so in his thirties.

The point is that even though Leiter didn’t come out and have the Paul Skenes “dominate from the very beginning” trajectory to his career, it doesn’t mean that he isn’t still going to be an ace for the Rangers.

Texas should be excited for what they have in Leiter. And beyond that, baseball fans in general should be pumped about getting to watch him shove throughout the end of this year.

As he takes that momentum into next season, it will be fun to see how good Jack Leiter can really be.