MLB playoffs 2023: How Texas Rangers closer José Leclerc found his top form in time for ALCS run
A dig from his 7-year-old son represented rock-bottom for the longest-tenured Ranger, who has been a key part of the bullpen's playoff rebound
HOUSTON — When he came in with two outs in the eighth inning Monday, José Leclerc was just a little nervous. Yordan Álvarez, the seemingly unstoppable, unsolvable slugger, had just homered for the second time that night to pull the Houston Astros within one run of tying the game. The Texas Rangers had jumped to a 4-0 lead in the first inning of Game 2 of the ALCS but watched it wither away with just one extra run of insurance added after that.
“It's no secret, I guess, that the bullpen didn't have a great year during the season,” catcher Jonah Heim had said before the game got underway. “But they really showed up in the postseason, and we wouldn't be where we're at without what they've done so far.”
It’s true, after blowing more saves than they converted in the regular season, Rangers relievers had a 1.86 ERA in just over 19 postseason innings before Monday. That's plenty good enough — especially paired with the team’s powerful lineup and strong starting pitching — but perhaps they weren’t changed so much as they were due for an implosion, the kind the Astros seem capable of inciting. Aroldis Chapman has looked erratic all October, even as manager Bruce Bochy has leaned on him just enough for it to not backfire.
Until it did. The homer to Álvarez ended Chapman’s night and inspired Bochy to go to his de facto closer with four outs to go and no wiggle room.
Later, Leclerc reported that he had been a little nervous, “but that really doesn't deter me from going out there and competing,” he said through interpreter Will Nadal.
He walked the first two batters he faced before getting out of the inning. In the bottom of the ninth, Leclerc made quick work of the eight- and nine-hole hitters to bring up October veteran and frequent Astros hero Jose Altuve. When Altuve launched a ball toward center field, the Houston crowd erupted.
“I was kind of confused, just because of how the fans reacted, but I was sure that he didn't hit it that well,” Leclerc said later through Nadal. He was right; it was just a long out to end the game — and give the Rangers a 2-0 lead as the series heads back to Arlington.
Just keep winning. #GoAndTakeIt pic.twitter.com/xgy8XSFVmS
— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) October 16, 2023
Texas has won seven games so far this postseason; Leclerc has pitched the ninth in every single one of them.
“He's truly a great human, so seeing the success he's having now, it's even better,” Heim said.
“I never really thought that I would pitch the way that I'm pitching right now,” Leclerc added.
'Thank god you didn’t pitch today'
“When I was younger, I didn't really even play baseball,” Leclerc said. “I would usually just go by the river, play with a stick and a rubber [ball].”
Born in Esperanza, Dominican Republic, the slight right-hander was signed at 16 years old by the Rangers — who had also signed his older brother, Angelo — as an international free agent at the end of 2010. He considers 2011 to be the first time he played organized baseball.
“I’m playing [on] like a real baseball field, but never something with fans,” he said in English. “Nothing like that.”
He debuted in 2016 at 22 years old. That year, the Rangers finished first in the division before getting swept out of the playoffs. Leclerc, who pitched just 15 innings in the regular season, was left off the postseason roster. He understood; he was young, unproven and unreliable.
“I knew the team, the organization, would get back to this point at some moment,” he said.
He probably didn’t know it would take seven years.
In the interim, Leclerc earned the closer job, lost it and earned it again. He also signed a four-year, $14.75 million contract to buy out his arbitration with an additional two years of options and missed a season after having Tommy John surgery. This year, the Rangers held him back from competing in the World Baseball Classic because of a neck injury. Even as the season got underway, the issue persisted.
“That kept him from being the pitcher that he is right now,” Bochy said. “Stuff was down a couple of ticks, his command was off, and I'm sure that had something to do with it. This game is hard enough to play when you're a hundred percent.”
Leclerc lost the closing job for much of the middle of this season. But as the bullpen wracked up blown saves and Leclerc started to feel better, Bochy returned to the longest-tenured member of the club down the stretch.
“You could see the stuff coming up, you could see the command getting better, and that's when I knew we had the Leclerc that we know,” Bochy said.
Health was certainly a factor, but Leclerc has a different idea of what changed. He didn’t just get better; he hit rock-bottom and turned around.
Leclerc has two sons, 7-year-old Joshuel and 3-year-old Liam. One day earlier this summer, when his father was really struggling, Joshuel remarked that the Rangers had won.
“I said, ‘Yes, we win,’” Leclerc remembered. “He said, ‘Thank god you didn’t pitch today.’”
His teammates laughed at this story, and sure, it’s nice to know your kids can be honest with you. But talk about a wake-up call.
“After that, my mind changed. I always think, ‘OK, I gotta be doing good because my kid now, he knows how the baseball is,’” Leclerc said in English.
'I didn't even think that I would get to the majors'
The last time a team won its first seven games of the postseason was, well, the last time there was a postseason. The Astros did it in 2022 en route to their second championship in five years. But that’s not normal. That was a 106-win team in the regular season and the culmination of a half-decade run of AL dominance.
The MLB playoffs expanded beyond the single-round World Series (thus creating enough games for this to be a meaningful statistic) in 1969. Since then, only five teams had ever gone undefeated through their first seven playoff games — until the Rangers did it by taking the first two of the ALCS against the Astros themselves.
Six of the Rangers’ seven playoff wins have come on the road. The lineup — which had the second-highest wRC+ in the AL this season — has outscored opponents 39-16. The starters have gone deep into games and given the team a chance every day. Bochy can seemingly do no wrong when it comes to deploying — or not — his cadre of relievers. And then, when it comes time to stifle the opposition’s final chance and secure the win, the Rangers give the ball to Leclerc.
So far, he has surrendered just one run in 7⅓ innings in his first postseason. It’s not better than he ever imagined because he never imagined he would be here.
“I didn't even think that I would get to the majors,” Leclerc said through Nadal. “It was just something, when I signed, I kind of signed just for the bonus. I thought I would have that money. Make sure to take care of myself and my family.”
Now his Rangers are two wins away from playing in the World Series, and Leclerc is savoring every time his teammates swarm the mound to celebrate after another successful outing.
“That's really the most special moment for me, just knowing when I get that final out that we've won the game,” he said through Nadal. “I just think to myself: One less game for us to get to that final objective.”
