Texas Rangers Young Starting Pitcher Blowing Away Expectations To Start Season

A young Texas Rangers starting pitcher has taken the baseball world by storm to start the season.

Mar 28, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jack Leiter (35) reacts during the game against the Boston Red Sox at Globe Life Field. / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

What looked like it would be a strength for the Texas Rangers entering the 2025 regular season quickly turned into a potential pitfall.

During spring training, it looked like their starting pitching depth was going to be a real weapon to rely on during the marathon season. Rarely nowadays does an entire pitching staff stay healthy, making it imperative to have at least six or seven players capable of stepping in and starting games.

Building up that depth was important for the Rangers because of how many key contributors they were counting on who are returning from injury.

Jacob deGrom hasn’t made more than 15 starts in a campaign since 2019. Tyler Mahle made only three last year and 31 combined over the previous three years.

So, when it was revealed that Jon Gray and Cody Bradford were both going to start the season on the injured list, there were concerns.

That meant youngsters Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter were going to be in the starting rotation on Opening Day, and each of them has their own issues.

Since his final season at Vanderbilt in 2021, Rocker has thrown 110.1 innings. Leiter got his first taste of the Major Leagues in 2024 and was hit hard by opponents to the tune of an 8.83 ERA, struggling with his command and giving up home runs.

Alas, that version of Leiter looks to be a thing of the past.

He came into spring training after making some major changes in the offseason, and they paid dividends right away.

The No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft looked like a different pitcher, introducing a new offering in his arsenal. He threw 20.2 innings during the exhibition season, recording a 3.48 ERA with 21 strikeouts.

Walks were still a bit of an obstacle, as he issued 10 of them for a 4.4 BB/9, but he did manage to keep the ball in the park, giving up only one home run.

The progress he showed during those games has carried right over into the regular season, where Leiter has blown away all expectations placed on him.

He has made starts against the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds, firing 10 innings of one-run ball with 10 strikeouts, one walk and no home runs allowed.

The performances are legitimate, as his FIP is a strong 1.15 with all of his underlying stats painting a very nice picture. Opponents are struggling to square the ball up against him with an average exit velocity of 84.8 mph and a hard-hit rate of 20.0%, well below last year's marks of 90.4 mph and 45.0%.

It was never an issue of talent with Leiter: he just needed some time to figure things out after aggressively being moved through the minor league system. 

He looks to have done it, making for some difficult decisions for the front office and coaching staff to make once the other starting pitchers are healthy enough to return to the mix.

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