Despite dealing with injuries, Wyatt Langford has displayed potential as an American League Rookie of the Year with the Texas Rangers.
Rangers Young Star Poised For AL Rookie Of The Year Run
Langford has dealt with injuries in 2024. As a result, as of this story’s writing, the Rangers rookie has appeared in only 52 of the team’s 77 games. Nevertheless, the former top prospect looks like a potential AL Rookie of the Year candidate.
Numbers Can Be Deceiving
Langford’s surface numbers do not jump off the page. The outfielder is slashing .254/.313/.368/.681 across 52 games played. Langford has also hit three home runs and recorded 30 RBI. If the season ended today, Langford would not win the award.
We are only in June, however. The underlying numbers suggest that Langford may be able to find more offensive consistency as the season continues. According to Baseball Reference, Langford hits the ball hard over 40 percent of the time. He also has a .311 BABip (batting average on balls in play), and his numbers still don’t look great.
One has to imagine that Langford will see a decrease in his ground ball rate (40.4 percent) moving forward. Once he adjusts to big-league pitching, Langford will begin hitting the ball in the air more often. Could it take him until next year to make that adjustment? Sure, it is possible. However, Wyatt Langford was a Rangers top prospect for a reason, and it would not be surprising to see him fix the concern sooner rather than later.
Wyatt Langford’s Competition
The AL Rookie of the Year race will be interesting to follow. Luis Gil is probably the favorite right now. Following a tremendous start to the season, Gil has endured some ups and downs over his recent outings, though.
Mason Miller has emerged as one of the best closers in MLB. He also plays for the Oakland Athletics, which means he could be on the move. There are no guarantees that Miller will even finish the season in the AL. If Miller remains in the league, he will have to have a jaw-dropping season-long performance since closers don’t always win the award.
Other candidates include Colton Cowser and Wilyer Abreu. Again, no candidate is guaranteed to stand in Langford’s way at the moment. If the Rangers young star lives up to his potential, then there is no reason why he will not climb the AL Rookie of the Year leaderboard.
With the Rangers also beginning to get healthy, Texas should start playing a better overall brand of baseball. Playing for a good team will only help Langford’s case.
Main Photo Credits: Jim Cowsert-USA TODAY Sports
