Texas Rangers: FanGraphs’ latest mock MLB Draft has Leiter to Arlington

One of the most exciting and important dates of the 2021 season is fast approaching for the Texas Rangers: the MLB Draft, which will occur on Sunday, July 11.

There has been plenty of speculation over who will be the pick at No. 2 overall since last winter, with the “hot” name changing seemingly by the day.

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Based on what we’ve seen, it looks like the Texas Rangers have narrowed down the potential field to a few names: SS Marcelo Mayer, RHP Jack Leiter and SS Jordan Lawlar. It would be fair to expect one of those names to be selected at pick No. 2 on Sunday night.

In their latest MLB Mock Draft, FanGraphs believes it’ll be Jack Leiter to Texas in the first round, which should delight a fanbase that has been clamoring for the Vanderbilt righty for months.

FanGraphs has the Texas Rangers selecting Jack Leiter at No. 2 overall in the 2021 MLB Draft

Perhaps you’re off the schneid for now, FanGraphs, but we’re still a little salty about their blatant disrespect of Isiah Kiner-Falefa just before this season.

Anyway, here’s what they had to say about the Rangers selecting Jack Leiter.

2. Texas RangersPick: Jack Leiter, RHP, Vanderbilt“If Mayer doesn’t go first, then he’s the favorite to go here and the general sense around baseball is that the other high school shortstops — Jordan Lawlar and Khalil Watson — are likely in the mix, too. Watson doesn’t fit with the org’s recent patterns of acquisition, so we’re skeptical of that one. Scouts with other teams speculated to us that Leiter better fits Texas’ self-perceived competitive timeline, and that they have the bonus pool flex to get a deal done even if Leiter’s camp sees this market as sub-optimal.”

We’ve known Leiter’s desire to be drafted by the Boston Red Sox of late (they pick fourth), but it would be hard to imagine a scenario in which Texas offers over-slot value to the star college pitcher and he turns it down.

Essentially, the Rangers would be daring Leiter and his camp to reject a lump sum of money up front. If Leiter really wants the Red Sox, he’ll be sacrificing money to do so. Not a gamble we would suggest making (but of course, we really want Leiter!).

We’ll learn more about Leiter’s business acumen later, but what we do know is that he should undoubtedly be the Texas Rangers’ pick at No. 2 overall come Sunday night if Pittsburgh passes on him in favor of SS Marcelo Mayer.