Jacob Latz had an incredible June for the Texas Rangers. All one needs to do is look at the numbers.
The members of the media that cover the team did and selected him the Rangers player of the month and it was an easy call. The left-hander went 11-for-11 in save chances, finished in the month with a 1.13 ERA as he allowed just two earned runs in 16 innings. He gave up six hits and four walks as he walked 19 hitters in 12 games.
Better, the Rangers went 11-1 when he pitched, 11 of his 12 outings featured no runs allowed and six of those went more than one inning. It’s rare to find a closer that can regularly pitch more than one inning — not that the Rangers want him doing it that often.
When the final American League All-Star roster is announced next week, Latz should be on it, as his month has parallels with another out-of-nowhere All-Star from 1999.
Latz became the fourth pitcher in Rangers history to post a month in which he threw at least 16 innings and gave up four of fewer hits. Naturally, they’re all relievers — Josh Sborz (2023), Neftali Feliz (2009) and Jeff Zimmerman (1999). That’s according to the team’s official PR account on X (formerly Twitter).
Zimmerman is a good parallel for Latz. He wasn’t a closer, and Latz wasn’t a closer to start the season. He slid into the role. But Zimmerman was such a deadly middle reliever than the AL voters had no choice but to send him to the All-Star Game as a rookie in 1999.
Zimmerman accomplished the feat in April of 1999. He was a multi-inning monster, even more than Latz. Of his eight games that April, only one was a single inning. When the month ended, the right-handed didn’t stop as he emerged as one of baseball’s most effective relievers.
By the All-Star break, Zimmerman was 8-0 with a save and 13 holds as he struck out 47 and walked 13 in 54 innings. Texas went 30-6 in games he pitched. He allowed five earned runs. Yes — five earned runs.
By season’s end he was 9-3 with a 2.36 ERA in 87.2 innings with three saves. He was third in AL rookie of the year voting, and the Rangers won the AL West for the fourth time in five years. It was one of the best rookie seasons by a pitcher in Rangers history.
Zimmerman’s played two more years for the Rangers and went 4-4 with a 2.40 ERA in 66 games in 2001. But three elbow surgeries, including a Tommy John procedure, derailed his career.
Latz hopes to avoid the same fate. But if past is prologue, then a month like Latz’s should lead him to his first All-Star Game berth later this month.
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