DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - The Texas Rangers have reached an agreement with first-round pick Jack Leiter, the club announced Wednesday.
The Rangers will have a press conference at 12:30 today to introduce the 21 year old.
According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, Leiter will be paid more than $7.9 million, which would make it the highest bonus a pitcher has received since the MLB Draft rules changed a decade ago, "and just shy of the $8M Gerrit Cole got from the Pirates in 2011.
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The slot value for the No. 2 overall pick was set at roughly $7.8 million.
The Rangers fan base can breathe a sigh of relief now that the deal is done with the right-hander. Prior to the draft, there had been some concern over whether or not Leiter would sign with Texas or simply go back to Vanderbilt for his junior season.
Leiter has pitched the last two seasons at Vanderbilt. In his sophomore season in 2021, he went 11-4 with a 2.13 ERA (26 ER/110.0 IP) over 18 games/starts, averaging 14.6 strikeouts per 9 innings with a 0.845 WHIP figure while holding opponents to a .129/.242/.250/.492 (48-372) slash line with 179 strikeouts and 45 walks.
His 179 strikeouts tied teammate Kumar Rocker to led all of NCAA Division I this past season, and he also ranked among circuit leaders in innings (2nd), starts (T3rd), strikeouts per 9 innings (4th), and WHIP (7th).
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