Jos Leclerc found his way back and helped guide the Rangers to the World Series

The Athletic has live coverage of Rangers vs. Diamondbacks in Game 1 of the World Series

It was July 16, 2016. Wrigley Field, Chicago. After his first 5 2/3 innings of big-league baseball, José Leclerc was sent back to the minor leagues for the first time. The stuff was undeniable — he had allowed just one run, striking out five — but his command was as advertised: shaky, to the tune of eight walks. As Leclerc made one last trip through the clubhouse before heading to the airport, catcher Bobby Wilson held the young pitcher’s hand in a handshake for an extra beat, meeting Leclerc’s eyes for a moment of encouragement.

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“Hey. You’ll be back.”

Wilson, who is now the Rangers’ catching instructor, says he doesn’t remember having that exact conversation but does recall catching Leclerc that year.

“He’s really been the same guy,” Wilson said before Game 5 of the ALCS earlier this month. “It’s been mild-mannered — not too high, not too low. But the one thing about Pico is the consistency in his daily work. He had that when he came up. He had it when he was going through struggles earlier in the year. He has it when things are going better for him … That hasn’t changed since I caught him in 2016 in his major-league debut in Boston. So when you’re seeing him pitch last night in Houston, yeah, it’s been the same guy.”

Timeless or temporary, Wilson’s words in Wrigley were correct: Leclerc did, in fact, come back.

In fact, “coming back” has become a common theme in his career.

It was July 31, 2018. Chase Field, Phoenix. As the trade deadline loomed, the Rangers traded closer Keone Kela to the Pirates. In the ensuing two months, Leclerc ascended into the closer role and compiled one of the most dominant second halves imaginable. In 18 innings over 18 games, Leclerc struck out 19, walked just six, and allowed no runs, earned or otherwise. He held hitters to a batting average of .053 and was 12-for-12 in save opportunities.

The Rangers responded that offseason by locking him into a long-term contract, one that seemed at the time to be very team-friendly: $14 million for 2019-2022, with two team options that totaled $12.25 million for 2023 and 2024. At the time, it was viewed as a huge win for the organization and its development team, finding their closer from within the system and locking him into a long-term deal.

The good feelings lasted approximately 4 1/3 innings.

Leclerc’s first four outings in 2019 appeared to be a continuation of his dominant 2018 season. No runs allowed, opponents hitting just .077 (1-for-13) with one hit and one walk. Then came April 9 in Phoenix. Three hits, three earned runs — a walk-off Diamondbacks win. It was Leclerc’s sixth career blown save but his first since taking over the closer’s role in mid-2018. He proceeded to walk eight batters in his next six innings, and after another blown save on the last day of April, with his ERA an inflated 8.44 for the month, Leclerc was no longer the Rangers’ closer. He returned to the role later that year with some success, but the tribulations had just begun.

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In 2020, Leclerc pitched just two games due to a shoulder injury. The next year, he suffered an elbow injury in spring training and underwent Tommy John surgery, missing the entire season. By the time he returned to a big-league mound on June 18, 2022, the once-closer of the future had thrown 47 big-league pitches in the previous 33 months.

When he did return, the results were mixed, which is not unusual for a pitcher returning from Tommy John surgery. But one split in particular was perplexing. Leclerc was thriving in low-leverage situations and struggling in high-leverage ones. It was a trend that continued into the 2023 season.

Leclerc Leverage Splits

“I was struggling,” Leclerc admits now. “When I had a (save) situation. I was like, not even good.”

There may also have been a physical component to his struggles.

“When we left spring training, I just don’t think he was 100 percent,” says manager Bruce Bochy. “He had his neck thing going on … We stopped him from pitching in the World Baseball Classic because we didn’t think he was completely healthy. We needed him to be our closer. You could see it with his command, his stuff, gradually getting better and better and better. Now you look at the end of the year, he’s throwing the ball like he did … when he was throwing well — the velo, the breaking, the change-up.”

There’s some evidence to support Bochy’s assertion. Leclerc’s four-seam fastball averaged 94.2 mph in April, and by September, it was up to 96.6 mph. All of his other pitches (except his sinker) ticked up accordingly.

But that still doesn’t explain why Leclerc’s success was so limited to low-leverage situations. The obvious assumption would be that it was an issue of confidence.

Leclerc says he can’t think of a specific moment where things turned around but acknowledged the struggle, saying, “Maybe it was a little mental.” He pointed to an outing in April in Cincinnati where he walked three hitters and blew a save, recording just one out.

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“After that, I tried to not walk guys,” he says. “And that’s where I put pressure on myself. But (I’ve realized) I don’t have to do that; I just have to keep working to try to get better every day.”

He says conversations with the Rangers’ mental performance team were helpful.

“When you believe in yourself, when you believe that something’s going to be good — not every time, but most of the time — good things are going to happen,” Leclerc says. “So that helped me a lot. When I think ‘OK, I know I’ve got a good fastball, good changeup, good slider. I just have to deliver.'”

It was October 18, 2023. Globe Life Field, Arlington. The Rangers were preparing to play their second home playoff game of the year. They were 7-0, having swept the Rays and Orioles before winning the first two games of the ALCS in Houston. Leclerc — the longest-consecutively-tenured member of the team, the one guy still on the roster who had been there since the beginning of the six-year stretch of losing seasons — had been on the mound to finish all seven games.

Fellow reliever Matt Bush, who also debuted with the Rangers in 2016, was asked if he had any explanation for Leclerc’s turnaround.

“He’s been through the ups and downs and he’s just riding the high right now,” Bush said. “He’s on fire … he’s a bit unconscious.”

“I can’t say exactly what (it) is, but sometimes success breeds confidence and vice versa,” said Rangers GM Chris Young. “They’re correlated and just getting opportunities to be out there in the moment and succeeding — I think you build off that. It’s been wonderful.”

But after the Astros jumped out to an early lead in Game 3, Leclerc’s services were not needed. Nor was he required to pitch in Game 4,  a 10-3 blowout loss to even the series. When next he ascended the mound at Globe Life Field, the score was 4-2 Rangers, and they were three outs from taking a commanding 3-2 lead in the ALCS.

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It did not go well.

After the game, Leclerc stood at his locker and answered questions. The room was quiet, but Leclerc did not appear devastated by the ninth-inning, go-ahead home run by Jose Altuve, nor did he lend any credence to the idea that the long rest between innings during a benches-clearing incident had contributed to his failure.

“I’m not making any excuses,” Leclerc said through an interpreter. “I’ve been in that situation before where I’ve had to wait and I’ve come out and pitched. I think it’s just (a matter of) better execution. It’s just something that happens.“

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Less than 48 hours later, Leclerc was 257 miles southeast, fulfilling Wilson’s prophecy from seven years ago: You’ll be back. He entered in the eighth inning to slam the door on an Astros rally, then gave way to Andrew Heaney in the ninth once Adolis García’s home run stretched the lead to seven runs.

But the next night, with three outs between the Rangers and the World Series, it was once again Leclerc on the mound. It would make for a tidy little ending to this story if he had struck out the side, but real life is rarely so poetic. In this universe, Altuve got him again, a parting shot that wouldn’t make much difference in the final score.

Nor was the rest of the inning neat and clean. Leclerc allowed one more walk and a single before facing Kyle Tucker with two on and two out.

It was not an easy road to the finish line — for Leclerc, it never has been. But such is the life of the big-league closer. Every success is an exclamation point on an already successful sentence, while every failure is the punchline of a joke made at the expense of anyone foolish enough to have believed in hope.

Leclerc has come back, and come back, and come back.

So did the Rangers. Back from a 3-2 deficit. Back from a gut-punch loss.

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Back to the World Series.

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(Photo of José Leclerc: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)

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