Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jack Leiter had dreams of following in his father’s footsteps and pitching for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic.
Leiter, 25, is the son of former MLB pitcher Al Leiter, who pitched for Team USA in the 2006 WBC as part of his farewell tour from baseball.
“It’s a dream of mine and high up on my list,” Jack Leiter told Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News on Feb 10. “It didn’t work out in the end. I was definitely frustrated and still am a little bit, but it will be fine.”
Leiter noted that insurance issues prevented him from getting the opportunity to pitch for the United States in the upcoming tournament.
“It wasn’t a hard ‘no,’” Leiter told Grant. “But it just came down to crossing the ‘Ts’ and dotting ‘Is’ on the insurance. It came down to insurance stuff I don’t really understand. I couldn’t control it. And at the end, you worry about what you can control.”
Leiter was the Rangers’ first-round draft pick in the 2021 Major League Baseball Draft. He was the No. 2 overall pick out of Vanderbilt University. Leiter was also drafted by the New York Yankees out of Delbarton High School in the 20th round in 2019, but elected to honor his commitment to Vanderbilt.
His father was also drafted by the Yankees in the MLB Draft. The Yankees selected him in the second round of the 1984 draft. Unlike his son, he did end up signing with them out of Central Regional High School in Bayville, New Jersey.
Jack competed for Team USA when he was 18 years old. He was on the mound in the final game for the U18 squad that won gold at the COPABE Pan-American Championship in Panama. Leiter was borderline unhittable with 20 strikeouts in eight innings and no earned runs across two games.
Leiter made his MLB debut with the Rangers on April 18, 2024, against the Detroit Tigers, and his father and the rest of his family were on hand to see it at Comerica Park.
“My son happened to love baseball, and he’s a pretty good pitcher, and he’s pitching in the Big Leagues,” Al Leiter told World Baseball Network at the Pinstripe Pride Hall of Fame Signings event in Secaucus, New Jersey.
“I get the chance to watch my son do what I did for a long time, and I think he has the ability to be even better than I was.”
Those are big shoes to fill since the elder Leiter had a 19-year MLB career with 2,391 innings, 1,974 strikeouts and a 3.80 ERA. He was also a two-time All-Star and won two World Series. It is a rich baseball family. Al’s brother Mark Leiter had an 11-year MLB career, and his nephew Mark Leiter Jr. is an active MLB reliever with the Athletics.
Jack was more highly touted than all of the other Leiters that came before him. He was the Rangers’ top prospect in 2022 and ranked 17th on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Rankings.
Photo: Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jack Leiter delivers against the Cleveland Guardians during the first inning of a baseball game, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Phil Long)
