Jack Leiter will make his MLB debut on Thursday with the Texas Rangers.

The team announced that news on Tuesday evening. Leiter’s first-career big league start will come against the Detroit Tigers.

The former Vanderbilt star has spent the last few years in the minor leagues, logging 192 innings during that stretch. A former top pick, his path to The Show was not linear — Leiter struggled with his command through much of 2022 and 2023.

However, he’s off to an incredible start so far in 2024 with the Rangers’ AAA affiliate in Round Rock, Texas. He has a 3.77 ERA in 14.1 innings pitched so far this season. Perhaps more importantly, his walks per 9 innings have fallen to just 1.9. He’s also maintained his high strikeout rate with a career-best 15.7 strikeouts per 9 innings so far in 2024.

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Leiter will be teammates with fellow former SEC star and ex-Florida Gator Wyatt Langford. Langford, the No. 4 pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, won a starting job out of spring training with the Rangers and is hitting .258 in the early going.

Leiter was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft. He was selected in that spot after a memorable career at Vandy that included a College World Series runner-up finish in 2021. Leiter posted a 2.13 ERA with 179 strikeouts in 110 innings in his final season at Vanderbilt.

If Leiter sticks in the rotation, his first home start of the season would likely come next week against the Seattle Mariners.