{"id":90456,"date":"2024-11-26T01:04:23","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T06:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=90456"},"modified":"2024-11-26T01:04:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T06:04:23","slug":"jose-leclerc-free-agent-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/26\/jose-leclerc-free-agent-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers Reliever Would Be Suitable Bullpen Addition as Free Agent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Texas Rangers reliever <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leclejo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-25_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jos\u00e9 Leclerc<\/a> is a free agent who is available to provide bullpen help this offseason. In 2024, Leclerc sported a 6-5 record with a 4.32 ERA with 89 strikeouts across 66 2\/3 innings pitched. He has spent his entire MLB career with the Rangers across eight seasons. The 30-year-old Dominican made his MLB debut in 2016 and was a 2023 World Series champ. As a relief pitcher, his go-to pitches are his four-seam fastball and his slider. His fastball can reach into the high 90s and his slider lives in the low 80s. Leclerc is also known for delivering from a cross-fire position. This pitching technique causes the ball to have a more diagonal trajectory.<\/p>\n<h2>Jos\u00e9 Leclerc Free Agent Profile<\/h2>\n<p>Leclerc is also known for maintaining a decent opponent average compared to other relievers along with a high strikeout ability. For his career, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2021\/03\/29\/jose-leclerc-to-undergo-tommy-john-surgery\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Leclerc<\/a> sports a 3.27 ERA but had a 2.68 regular-season ERA in 2023. 2018 was a big year for him, as he was named the Rangers Pitcher of the Year by the Baseball Writers&#8217; Association of America. That year, Leclerc had a 1.56 ERA with a 2-3 record with 85 strikeouts and 12 saves.<\/p>\n<h3>Potential Landing Spots for Leclerc<\/h3>\n<h4>Pittsburgh Pirates<\/h4>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Mark Feinsand from MLB listed RHP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leclejo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-26_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jose Leclerc<\/a> as a free agent the Pittsburgh Pirates should go after this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>He mentioned Pittsburgh would be in the market for a late-inning reliever.<\/p>\n<p>Leclerc was 6-5 with a 4.32 ERA last season in 66.2IP<\/p>\n<p>Would you like this signing?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kody Duncan (@KodyDuncanPGH) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KodyDuncanPGH\/status\/1861076244026085817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 25, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/09\/01\/pirates-reinstate-holderman-borucki\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Pirates bullpen<\/a> is currently a significant weakness, and they are actively seeking to acquire new arms. They are looking to amplify a relief corps which showed plenty of cause for concern in the 2024 season. Leclerc would be a suitable target for the Pirates, as he is a reliever with experience. The Pirates are also looking for relievers to pitch in high-leverage situations and Jos\u00e9 could solidify that need. MLB insider Mark Feinsand believes Leclerc is a reliever that the Pirates should go after this offseason.<\/p>\n<h4>Toronto Blue Jays<\/h4>\n<p>One of the many areas that the Blue Jays need assistance is the bullpen, and Leclerc is one option to consider. Toronto could use a reliever with postseason experience and a quick arm. The Blue Jays&#8217; bullpen tumbled in 2024 due to injuries and now their closer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/romanjo03.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-26_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Romano<\/a> is joining free agency. The Blue Jays need experienced arms in the bullpen if they want to contend in 2025. In the postseason, Leclerc has a 1-1 record with a 3.29 ERA with 14 strikeouts.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Steven Bisig-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas Rangers reliever Jos\u00e9 Leclerc is a free agent who is available to provide bullpen help this offseason. In 2024, Leclerc sported a 6-5 record with a 4.32 ERA with 89 strikeouts across 66 2\/3 innings pitched. He has spent his entire MLB career with the Rangers across eight seasons. The 30-year-old Dominican made his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4831,"featured_media":90465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,18],"tags":[3385,231,36],"class_list":["post-90456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-rangers","tag-jose-leclerc","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}