Texas Rangers fans were excited to see the debut of former Vanderbilt star and No. 2 overall pick Jack Leiter this season, but his transition to the majors has been bumpy, to say the least.
Leiter has been pushed to the big leagues following injuries to Nathan Eovaldi and Dane Dunning, while Jacob deGrom is still recovering from Tommy John surgery as well, and if things don’t improve, it won’t be long before he gets sent back down to get a little more seasoning.
Leiter made his third start of the season last night and took a step back, giving up three hits and three walks that led to six runs in just 1.2 innings of work in a 7-4 loss to the Cleveland Guardians.
Jack Leiter had a disastrous outing, recording 1.2 IP with 6 ER, 3 H, 1 K, 3 BB
Although his slider and fastball graded out well, Leiter’s command was all over the place. He struggled to locate his pitches and allowed a lot of hard contact
It’s been a rough rookie season pic.twitter.com/eqh6iV3NPf
This was his first start at home, so it was a brutal debut for Leiter who had looked slightly better in his second start than he did in his first one, but the wheels fell off quickly last night and he didn’t make it out of the second inning.
In the post above shared by analyst Thomas Nestico, he highlighted how Leiter’s command was the main issue, as he was all over the place despite his fastball and slider grading out well.
You can get away with great stuff and shaky command in college and the minors, but big-league hitters will make you pay for mistakes regardless of how quality the stuff is.
Leiter is too talented not to figure it out, as he had a rough transition to the minors as well before finding his groove.