New York Mets great, and former New York Yankees player and broadcaster, Al Leiter will be the latest one-time MLB star who will see his son follow him into the big leagues.
Over 19 seasons in the league, two-time All-Star Al Leiter made a major impact on New York baseball. The New Jersey native was drafted by the Yankees in the second round of the 1984 MLB Draft and would make his debut with the big league team three years later. After two and a half up and down seasons, he would be traded to the Blue Jays in 1989 but would find his way back to New York nearly a decade later.
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Following two impressive seasons in Florida with the Marlins — that included a World Series win — Leiter was traded to the New York Mets in 1998 and would go on to have seven memorable years with the Amazin’s before ending his career two seasons later with one final stint in the Bronx wearing pinstripes.
Over the last few years, there have been rumblings about another Leiter with MLB talent and now this week will see the son match his father. On Tuesday the Texas Rangers announced that Jack Leiter, the son of the Mets and Yankees veteran, will make his big league debut for them this Thursday.
The 23-year-old is currently the eighth-ranked player in the Rangers farm system according to MLB.com. The New Jersey native was the second overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft and is ahead of schedule in his progress through the Texas minor leagues.
Al Leiter’s son Jack Leiter was the 2nd overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft
In 2022 he started in Double-A and eventually made the jump to Triple-A where he made one start and was roughed up last year. However, over his first three appearances this year, he has gone 1-1 with a 3.77 ERA and has a 25-to-3 strikeouts-to-walk ratio in 14.1 innings. In his most recent outing, he posted 10 of those 25 strikeouts against Oklahoma City.
Here is a summary of the right-handed pitcher, a player described as explosive but with work to do when it comes to his mechanics, via MLB.com:
Leiter’s fastball continues to sit at 93-96 mph and top out at 98 with plenty of induced vertical break and riding life, but it’s not quite the elite pitch it was in college because he hasn’t commanded it well and pro hitters have crushed it when he doesn’t locate it up in the zone. He has added velocity and depth to a mid-80s slider that was his most effective pitch in 2023. He’s now having trouble getting strikes or chases with an upper-70s curveball that used to be his best secondary offering and doesn’t show much faith in a mid-80s changeup with modest fade.
– MLB.com
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