Jack Leiter will have an unlikely Yankees player cheering him on during MLB debut

Eric Cole

2024 Texas Rangers Spring Training / Bailey Orr/Texas Rangers/GettyImages

It's taken longer than many thought it would, but Jack Leiter is finally going to make his Texas Rangers debut on Thursday.

When the Rangers selected Leiter second overall in the 2021 MLB Draft, many pegged him as a college arm that should move through the minors very quickly and establish himself a big league starter in short order thanks to a fastball/slider combo that looked as good as anybody's in MLB at the time.

Unfortunately, Leiter struggled mightily in his first two seasons in the minor leagues and many began to wonder if he would ever be able to reach his lofty ceiling at all. However, he has looked much better this spring and an injury to Cody Bradford opened up an opportunity in the Rangers' rotation that Leiter is looking to seize against the Tigers.

In a surprise twist, Leiter is going to have an unlikely fan cheering him on from afar as his old high school teammate and now a member of the rival Yankees, Anthony Volpe, is going to watching his debut very closely on New York's off day.

Rangers-Yankees rivalry isn't stopping Anthony Volpe from cheering Jack Leiter on

While Delbarton School in New Jersey may not be known as a pro baseball player factory to the general public, both Leiter and Volpe attended at the same time and grew up together off and on. When asked about Leiter's debut and if he would be watching, Volpe responded with, "We have an off day, so I’ll be watching every pitch."

In an era where baseball fanbases are extremely tribalistic and rivalries between two good teams like the Yankees and Rangers can be toxic, these sorts of stories are a reminder that, to quote the great Sarah Langs, "baseball is the best and should transcend city and state boundaries."

Sure, the competition is ultimately what keeps everyone engaged and entertained in the game of baseball, but it's still nice that Leiter and Volpe have maintained a strong relationship and can still root for one another to succeed even though they are fighting for the same goal.

That said, if/when Leiter faces Volpe for the first time, it is going to be all business and we are going to need Leiter to use that slider to win some bragging rights over the Yankees' shortstop.

More Texas Rangers News from Nolan Writin'

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.