Rangers shelve Leiter with ankle issue as Seager stays sidelined

The Texas Rangers placed Jack Leiter on the 15-day injured list Sunday due to a lingering right ankle injury, while star shortstop Corey Seager remains in concussion protocol and is still not ready to return.

ARLINGTON, Texas — By Sunday, the Texas Rangers had run out of runway for Jack Leiter’s right ankle problem.

The team placed the 26-year-old right-hander on the 15-day injured list Sunday with an ankle issue he has been battling most of the season. Corey Seager. the Rangers’ star shortstop. is also still not ready to return. remaining in concussion protocol after being eligible to come off the seven-day concussion list Friday.

Leiter’s absence immediately reshapes a key part of the Rangers’ rotation. Texas recalled right-hander Jose Corniell from Triple-A Round Rock. but the team did not say how it plans to fill Leiter’s rotation spot Tuesday at Miami. Corniell has made seven minor league appearances, with six of them coming as starts.

President of baseball operations Chris Young said Leiter had been trying to pitch through what’s being called right ankle posterior impingement. Young said the injury has forced Leiter to compensate, and that the adjustment has affected his mechanics.

Leiter’s results have followed the struggles. He lost all three of his June starts, posting a 9.88 ERA. In a 9-3 loss to Minnesota on Thursday, he allowed seven hits and six runs in four innings. On the season, Leiter is 3-7 with a 5.29 ERA in 15 starts.

Young said Leiter hasn’t treated the injury as an excuse. “Jack has not made it an issue. That speaks to his level of competitiveness,” Young said. “He’s not made excuses, but the reality is he’s having to change his delivery to compensate for it. We cannot put him in harm’s way. He’s too important to our future.”.

The Rangers described a long buildup to this moment. Young said Leiter was already dealing with the balky ankle when he aggravated the injury by slipping on an on-deck circle in his fifth start of the season on April 22 at home against the New York Yankees. Young said imaging showed the injury was getting worse.

Manager Skip Schumaker said the team had been monitoring the situation, but the limitations were becoming impossible to ignore. “We’ve been trying to monitor it as best we could,” Schumaker said. “But the reality is he just wasn’t able to do what he was capable of doing throughout the starts. I think it started showing up more and more. It wasn’t fair to him that we kept sending him out there.”.

Seager’s timeline has been more cautious. Young said Seager was eligible to return from the seven-day concussion list Friday, but he remains in protocol. He has been participating in meetings and running on the field before the game.

Schumaker said Seager will be on the upcoming 10-game road trip with stops in Miami. Toronto and Cleveland. but he wouldn’t put a date on his return. “It’s still day to day,” Schumaker said. “I’m trying to make sure that he feels good after this kind of stimulation and inside the weight room. hitting and then running.”.

Seager has been dealing with more than just the concussion interruption. The Rangers said he was in the worst slump of his career when he took a few days off in mid-May. after which he dealt with a sore back that extended his absence to 19 games. Seager is a five-time All-Star who is hitting .186 with nine homers and 24 RBIs.

The Rangers now face a tight test of their depth and patience—one decision tied to protecting Leiter’s future, the other to keeping Seager safe while the protocol runs its course.

Texas Rangers Jack Leiter injured list ankle injury Corey Seager concussion protocol Jose Corniell Chris Young Skip Schumaker