Jack Leiter’s Latest Improvement Should Give Rangers Rotation Boost

Jack Leiter spent the offseason making more improvements to help the Texas Rangers’ starting rotation and his career.

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jack Leiter. | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Jack Leiter sees his pitch mix as a progression. The former Texas Rangers first-round pick has made slow and steady progress since his debut in 2024.

Last year, he admitted he added a two-seam fastball to go along with his four-seam fastball. He said the two-seam fastball wasn’t “elite, but it served its purpose,” which was to give hitters a different look. Still, Leiter threw that four-seamer 39% of the time and averaged 97.3 mph. His fastball velo was at the 88th percentile according to Baseball Savant.

Leiter also threw a slider, a change-up, a sinker and a curveball last season. So, what’s one more pitch, or variation on a pitch? This offseason, he’s been working on a cutter.

“I think it kind of serves the same purpose [as the two-seamer], so it's not like a revolutionary, life-changing change,” Leiter said to reporters on the first day of spring training in Surprise, Ariz. “But it's something that in that, in that 2-0 count, could get an out.”

Jack Leiter’s Next Step

Texas Rangers pitcher Jack Leiter. | Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images

Leiter finished last season with a 10-10 record and a 3.86 ERA, putting himself firmly in the No. 3 spot in the rotation. He struck out 148 and walked 67 in 151.2 innings. The final two months of his season saw him put together an above-average stretch run that left Texas optimistic that a further breakthrough was coming.

He felt the same way. He spent part of his offseason in Nashville, the home of his alma mater, Vanderbilt. He didn’t just work on his new pitch, but he also put thought into how to avoid the blister that led to him ending up on the injured list early last season. He took his cues from watching his rotation mates, Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi, in considering what he must do to take the next step.

Having those two pitchers to model a career after certainly helps clarify the path forward. It’s part of the reason he added the two-seamer last year.

“I think you look around the league at the elite starting pitchers and the ones who go deep into games and throw 200 plus innings, a lot of them have multiple fastballs,” Leiter said.

But this is where Leiter wants to be. It’s where the Rangers want him to be, too. Texas had hoped that the first-round pick from 2021 would have reached the Majors a bit faster. But he spent part of his 2023 season on the developmental list working on command as walks became a real issue and limited his progression. In 2024 — when he made his MLB debut but spent most of the year at Triple-A Round Rock — he was named the Pacific Coast League pitcher of the year.

That was his springboard into 2025. Now, he hopes 2025 will be his springboard to something special in 2026.

“Ideally it’s continuing to build, continuing to get better each and every day, keep the same process mindset that I’ve always had and continue to refine that process,” Leiter said.