Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker thinks that Jack Leiter has everything you could want in a front-line big league starter.

“Jack’s got the stuff, he’s got the demeanor, he’s got the toughness, everything you want in a starting pitcher, Jack has,” Schumaker said after Leiter’s last start.

However, it’s that very toughness that possibly has cost the Rangers' young right-hander some quality.

Back on April 22nd, Leiter slipped over something in the on-deck circle while backing up home plate in a start against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Leiter has battled through and made every start since, but it hasn’t been the same. Since the injury scare, Leiter has posted an ERA of 5.43 in 54.2 innings pitched.

On Sunday afternoon, things reached a breaking point as the Rangers placed Leiter on the 15-day Injured List with a posterior ankle impingement in his right ankle that has been bothering him since the incident and changed the way he pitches.

“He [Leiter] was trying to do whatever he could to make his start,” Schumaker said. “Jack is a really tough kid, and the fact that he was trying to make every start dealing with his push-off leg not being really good might have started to impact other things.

“As much as I want him out there, I think we have to make sure that he's OK. He's part of the future of our team and our franchise, and I think he's going to be pitching here a long time.”

For Rangers President of Baseball Operations Chris Young, a 13-year big-league pitcher, the will of Leiter and the Rangers to push through the injury has been there, but things reached the end of the line.

“He's done his best to pitch through it,” Young said. “We've tried different ways to try to calm it down and alleviate it. After his last start, we did another image to see what's going on. It showed that it has gotten worse, and the recommendation from the doctors is to give this a break. It's altering his mechanics.”

Young knows that Leiter is someone the Rangers need to be at the best version of himself, both now and in years down the road.

“We cannot put him in harm's way,” Young said. “He's too important to our future. So our hope is that we can shut him down right now, get this looked at, understand what the prognosis is, and then hopefully get him back.”

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