Family, friends turn out for Latz’s debut
CLEVELAND — Jeff and Tricia Latz were at dinner Monday in Round Rock, waiting to watch their son, Jake, make his third career Triple-a start, when Jake sent a text message to his father.
“Dad,” it read, “I’m not pitching tonight.”
Then, for the next hour, radio silence. Jeff and Tricia didn’t know what to think. Their minds wandered, not knowing what led to the sudden cancellation, but eventually Jake cleared everything up. Unexpectedly, he was heading to Cleveland to join the Rangers.
“I never thought it would happen,” Jeff said, “and 48 hours ago, he found out he was coming.”
How it happened makes Latz’s story even more incredible.
The former fifth-round pick of the Rangers isn’t listed among the Rangers’ Top 30 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline. He recently got the promotion from Double-a to Triple-a, and if it wasn’t for the Rangers losing Wednesday’s and Thursday’s starters because of COVID-19 contact tracing, he might not have gotten the call to the majors. He didn’t even know if he was going to be Wednesday’s starter until he was already on his way up to Cleveland.
“Everybody gets there a different way,” Tricia said about the professional baseball path, “but it’s really what you do with it.”
And with it, Latz threw 42⁄3 innings Wednesday at Progressive Field, allowing three runs — all on solo home runs — in what was a 7-2 loss to Cleveland. Latz had four strikeouts and had a stretch where he recorded nine outs in 10 batters.
Jason Martin hit a two-run home run in the sixth to make it a onerun game, but Cleveland answered with two more runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning, resulting in Latz’s first MLB loss.
Rangers manager Chris Woodward said he didn’t know what to expect from Latz’s debut, but he was impressed with the rookie’s composure.
“He looked like a MLB pitcher out there,” Woodward said.
It’s not guaranteed Latz’s stay in the majors will last long. Rangers starter Dane Dunning was added to the Covid-related injured list on Wednesday, and Spencer Howard — originally scheduled to pitch Thursday — is still going through COVID-19 health and safety protocols. Fellow starter Mike Foltynewicz also is on the COVID IL.
Eventually those starters are expected to come off COVID IL and rejoin the rotation, but Wednesday, as his high school friends called it, was “Latz Day,” and it couldn’t be missed.
Jeff and Tricia, now living in the Dallas area, originally were scheduled to fly out to Albuquerque, N.M., to watch their son pitch this weekend. Instead, they drove back home from Round Rock, got on a flight Tuesday to Chicago and then woke up Wednesday and flew to Cleveland.
“It was planes, trains and automobiles,”
Jeff said.
But they made it. So did his high school coach, coaches from Kent State and some friends from both high school and college. Three of his friends made the spur-of-themoment, 359-mile drive from Lemont, Ill., to Cleveland. If it was a day game, there’s no way they would’ve made it.
“We’re pulling up to Cleveland, saw the sign for Ohio, and we were like, ‘We’re here, man. We’re not in Lemont, Illinois anymore,’ ” said Marek Sandrzyk, a high school friend of Latz’s. “We’re about to see a Major League Baseball game with our best friend that we grew up with doing his thing out there.
“It’s everything we always thought he would do.”
It makes sense, considering how dominant Latz’s high school career was. In his senior season, he went 10-0 and had a 0.23 ERA, according to Prep Baseball Report He also had 114 strikeouts and 12
walks in 621⁄3 innings. He was drafted in the 11th round out of high school by the Toronto Blue Jays but decided to go to LSU.
Latz spent two seasons at LSU but battled multiple elbow injuries, resulting in seven total appearances. He transferred to Kent State but had to redshirt because of the NCAA’S transfer rules. He never pitched another game in college. Kent State did allow him to throw in bullpen sessions and pitch in simulated games. It showed enough for the Rangers — a team his parents said had liked him since high school — to draft him in the fifth round in 2017.
“They were very crucial in my process of getting drafted that year,” Latz said of the Kent State coaching staff.
Bryan Soth was an outfielder at Kent State, and though he never actually got to play with Latz, the two teammates became good friends. Soth said they’d always talk about visions they had. They both visualized making it to the big leagues one day. Latz accomplished that Wednesday; Soth, instead, will be applying to medical school soon.
“We’ve just talked about staying the course, keep the faith, and everything will pan out the way it’s supposed to,” Soth said, acknowledging the goosebumps he felt on his arms from even talking about it.
“Because, in this moment, this is what we wanted, and this is what we thought about every day … although I’m not on the field, and I never will be again, I’m fulfilled for Jake.”
Latz said his goal Wednesday was to not get caught up in the surroundings of playing in a MLB game. He wanted to keep his focus on Jose Trevino’s glove, but even he couldn’t tune out the cheers his friends and family had with every strike he threw on Wednesday.