Budding Texas Rangers Starter Claims Pacific Coast League Honors

If Jack Leiter is a full-time starter for the Texas Rangers next season, then his final minor league award puts a bow on that part of his career.

Sep 26, 2024; Oakland, California, USA; Texas Rangers pitcher Jack Leiter (35) throws a pitch during the ninth inning against the Oakland Athletics at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. / Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images

Jack Leiter spent the last month of the season with the Texas Rangers, but what he did with Triple-A Round Rock was good enough to win him two major awards on Wednesday.

The Rangers announced that Leiter was named the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year in voting by league managers. He was also selected as a Pacific Coast League Postseason All-Star.

Leiter went 6-4 with a 3.51 ERA in 17 games (16 starts) for Round Rock. He struck out 110 and walked 35 in 77 innings, while giving up just 30 earned runs.

With 12.86 strikeouts per nine innings, he led the PCL in that category and posted the highest mark by a Rangers Triple-A pitcher since at least 2006, per the team.

His season was enough to get him to the Majors for the first time, as he made his debut in a spot start in April in Detroit. At the time, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said Leiter had pitched well enough in the minors to earn the spot.

The Rangers brought him up three other times before they called him up for good on Sept. 2. He worked in both a starter and a reliever role with Texas down the stretch, and then was optioned back to the minors on Sept. 27 in a procedural move on the final weekend.

In nine games, six of which were starts, he went 0-3 with an 8.33 ERA, striking out 31 and walking 17 in 35.2 innings. In three of his five games in September he pitched five innings, including an effective start against the Los Angeles Angels on Sept. 7. He gave up three runs on two hits, with six strikeouts and two walks.

The past 18 months have been a turning point for Leiter, who struggled with walks early in his minor-league career and went on the development list midway through last season to reshape his delivery and approach.

The right-hander was originally selected with the second overall pick of the 2021 MLB Draft out of Vanderbilt. Leiter is currently tabbed as the fourth-best prospect in the Rangers organization, according to MLB Pipeline.

He will be one of the many candidates for next year’s starting rotation, which should be topped by veteran Jacob deGrom.