NY Mets pay tribute to Jacob deGrom before he returns to Citi Field mound
As Jacob deGrom made his first start back at Citi Field since leaving the Mets, the club played a video tribute on Sept. 12, 2025.
It was something of a homecoming for Jack Leiter this past weekend at Citi Field.
While the 25-year-old right-handed pitcher was in the visiting dugout as a member of the Texas Rangers, he was not very far from where his baseball career began at Delbarton in Morristown.
Leiter was not lined up to start against the Mets, but elsewhere on the mound on Saturday afternoon, his dad and former Met, Al Leiter, was in blue and orange pitching in the club’s Alumni Classic.
From a corner in the dugout, flanked by Jacob deGrom, Leiter, the family’s newest major leaguer, could not help but smile as the left-handed patriarch — his own pitching coach from 8 years old — got a chance to relive the good ole days as his son began his own baseball expedition.
“Obviously it’s something that he’s been there in my corner my whole life, so I haven’t known otherwise,” Leiter said, “but I am really grateful to have someone who I really look up to as a person but also from what he did in his career, to have that as my dad and someone that I talk to every day, it’s extremely lucky.”
It was a dream weekend for Leiter in New York as he is finally reveling in his major league dream.
Jack Leiter on leaving the struggles in the past
When Leiter first stepped onto the campus of Delbarton more than a decade ago, Green Wave coach Bruce Shatel saw a laser-focused player.
Initially, he was smaller than the other freshmen. A few short seasons later, Leiter was deploying “flawless mechanics” to touch 98 mph with his fastball during the Morris County Tournament championship game.
“In terms of baseball, he was a creature of habit,” Shatel said. “He had a routine that was extremely meticulous, in terms of his prep, in terms of between starts. His work ethic, his running, his (plyometrics), everything needed to be on point for him to feel perfect.”
That blistering fastball, along with a vicious curveball, equipped him well for a rapid ascension. He tinkered with a changeup and found his slider his senior year.
After being drafted by the Yankees in the 20th round in 2019 as the Gatorade New Jersey Baseball Player of the Year for the Green Wave, Leiter elected to play at Vanderbilt. At the SEC school, he was tied for the NCAA lead with 179 strikeouts, tossed a no-hitter against South Carolina and helped lead the Commodores to the College World Series final.
Despite lofty expectations that came with being drafted by the Rangers with the second overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, Leiter had a bumpy journey early in his professional career.
He spent his entire first season for Double-A Frisco in 2022, pitching to a 3-10 record with a 5.54 ERA and 1.55 WHIP. He followed it up with a 2-6 record, 5.07 ERA and 1.40 WHIP in 19 starts at the same level in 2023, despite striking out 110 batters in 81â…” innings.
The inroads began to be made last season as Leiter was named the Pacific League Pitcher of the Year, with a 6-4 record, 3.51 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and 110 strikeouts in 77 innings for Triple-A Round Rock. But the first foray into the major leagues was a struggle as he allowed 35 earned runs in 35â…” innings (8.83 ERA) in his first nine major league outings.
“I think a lot of times last year, I was getting myself into trouble when you could pretty much predict from the stands what pitch I was throwing in certain counts,” Leiter said. “These hitters are really good and the best pitchers, you see it, no matter how good the stuff is, the best guys are changing speeds, changing locations, keeping hitters off balance and just being unpredictable.”
Leiter always had the firepower, with a four-seam fastball that now averages 97.2 mph and touches triple digits and a high-80s slider and a curveball as a wrinkle, but needed to find better control. He refined a kick changeup that has been arguably his best swing-and-miss pitch this season, along with a sinker to run in on right-handed hitters.
Jack Leiter taking the next step
In 26 starts in his rookie campaign entering Monday night, Leiter is 9-8 with a 3.81 ERA, 1.32 WHIP and 130 strikeouts in 132â…“ innings. Since the All-Star break, Leiter is 4-2 in 10 starts with a 2.94 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and 61 strikeouts in 52 innings, with five quality starts.
The situation is a blessing for Leiter, surrounded by a veteran rotation that includes deGrom, Merrill Kelly and Patrick Corbin, four-time World Series champion manager Bruce Bochy and veteran pitching coach Mike Maddux.
Leiter’s results have been exactly what the Rangers needed as they have remained a threat to steal an American League Wild Card spot by going 12-4 since Aug. 26 despite injuries mounting.
Nathan Eovaldi has been out since Aug. 27 with a right rotator cuff strain and Jon Gray out since Aug. 17 with right shoulder nerve irritation. Both veteran right-handers are out for the remainder of the season.
“Sometimes it can be tough because it is a result-oriented game – that’s how you’re judged at least – but to judge yourself by the commitment to the process and continuing to get better every day,” Leiter said. “Learning from the good, learning from the bad, I think those are the things that I’m most proud of for this year, because I feel like that’s where true progress is made, not getting too hung up on the short-term results, keeping the long-term confidence.”
Pitching for the postseason
On Monday night in Houston, Leiter took the mound for one of the biggest games of the Rangers’ season.
After the Rangers took two out of three games from the Mets over the weekend, they trailed their Texas rivals by two games for the final spot in the wild card.
“It’s everything you want. You want to play meaningful game the whole season and into the postseason, but to get to the postseason, you gotta play well in this stretch, especially in our position,” Leiter said. “We know what’s ahead of us and it all boils down to one game at a time. I think we’ve done a good job of that.”
It ended up being a mixed bag for Leiter, who stumbled on a chopper in the first inning and committed an error as part of a two-run first inning. He ended up giving up three earned runs in 6â…” innings, with Bochy trusting Leiter to go beyond 100 pitches but Leiter unable to record the final out of the seventh.
For Leiter, he said that every struggle to get to this point as felt like a “stepping stone.”
“He’s a real level-headed guy. You’ll see some emotion from time to time from him, but it’s rare,” Shatel said. “He’s even-keel and he’s got the ability to block bad things out and move on to the next pitch. He was always able to do that in high school and he’s doing it now at the professional level.”
The continued development at the major league level is something that he had fellow Delbarton teammate Anthony Volpe are going through in different corners of the United States.
Now equipped to live up to his potential, Leiter finds himself in a key spot where has always dreamed of being.
“It’s just an opportunity that you really try not to take for granted because this is awesome,” Leiter said.