Leiter to use 'dream scenario' vs. NY as motivation

ARLINGTON -- Jack Leiter thought for a second when asked about his night, before giving a pretty fair assessment.

"That’s a loaded question,” he said, standing in front of his locker at Globe Life Field on Monday night.

The Rangers’ No. 4 prospect per MLB Pipeline, Leiter had just made his fifth Major League start against the Yankees, allowing five runs in five-plus innings in Texas' eventual 8-4 loss. The box score won’t show it, but it was undoubtedly the best start of Leiter’s short big league career.

"Any time you take the ball you want the team to have another win in the win column,” Leiter said. “That didn't happen tonight. But there were a lot of positives. I felt good about my stuff. I felt like, execution-wise, that's the best it's been up here so far for me. So then it becomes a conversation of navigating lineups a little better, and maybe pitch selection here and there. But for the most part, I felt really good."

At five-plus innings, it marked Leiter’s longest MLB outing. He was efficient enough that manager Bruce Bochy let him face the top of the Yankees' order a third time, though three straight hits from Gleyber Torres, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge to start the sixth knocked him out before recording an out.

Bochy said he wasn’t surprised at all by how well Leiter threw the ball.

"We’re trying to win a ballgame,” Bochy said of sending Leiter back out. “We thought with this stuff, he’s the best guy to have out there. We're not gonna be too careful with this kid. He's been around the game, so he's not in awe of anything."

Leiter also recorded two strikeouts against a pair of former MVPs in Judge and Giancarlo Stanton and walked no one. It was far from a perfect day, but Leiter showed improvements and looked more comfortable than he ever has on the big league stage.

That’s all the Rangers -- and Leiter himself -- can ask for right now.

"It's kind of a dream scenario that you hope to get into, pitching deeper into a game with a Cy Young Award winner [Gerrit Cole] on the other side and an MVP at the plate [Judge],” Leiter said. “I didn't get it done in the sixth, but it's obviously an awesome, awesome situation to find myself in."

The Rangers’ first-round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, Leiter has admittedly struggled throughout much of his professional career. But despite a 12.83 ERA in four big league starts entering the day, he’s seemingly figured things out in Triple-A and is ready for an extended look at the big league level.

This is going to be the first of many starts for Leiter down the stretch. Both Bochy and general manager Chris Young have said they hope to get him some runway in September with the Rangers out of contention so he can get more acclimated to his surroundings.

"We feel like he's done everything he can at Triple-A,” Young said earlier in the homestand. “Now he needs some consistent starts at the Major League level. …. There's an adjustment that happens in the big leagues, and it's going to be really important for him over the next month to get exposure to all of that, and then we expect the results to continue to improve."

Leiter is more than happy for that runway.

"I think we as baseball players -- but starting pitchers, specifically -- are creatures of habit and routine,” Leiter said. “Being able to get on a routine is important, and I think that with more consistency, the better it’ll get over time."

And, perhaps, everything that’s happened to the Rangers this season is what’s best for Leiter.

When he was with the big league club earlier in the season, Texas still had attainable World Series aspirations. Things have obviously changed a lot as the summer slipped away and the Rangers fell back in the standings.

In September, every start won’t be do or die for Leiter anymore. There’s more wiggle room for him to just pitch and grow, instead of worrying about having the weight of the world on his shoulders. He doesn’t have to live and die with every pitch.

"The reality is, we're in a much different spot right now than we were earlier in the year when he was making his starts,” Young said. “It was based purely on performance, and at that point we didn't have the luxury of giving him or any other player extreme runway. We do now. Our goals have shifted more to 2025. We want to finish the season strong, but I think part of having a great 2025 is going to be finding out about our young guys and making sure that they're ready to come contribute next year."