Rangers Treating Wyatt Langford Like Veteran as He Enters Third MLB Season

The Texas Rangers are counting on left fielder Wyatt Langford taking another big step forward and how they’re calibrating his spring training is part of the equation.

Texas Rangers left fielder Wyatt Langford. | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

SURPRISE, Ariz. — Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker does not want to alarm you, but Wyatt Langford will not be in the starting lineup for the team's first spring training game on Friday against Kansas City.

In fact, it's unlikely that Langford will be in the starting lineup for the following game on Saturday against the Chicago Cubs in Mesa, Ariz., either.

There's nothing wrong with Langford, he stressed. In fact, Langford took batting practice on Sunday, his first day at spring training. But the Rangers are calibrating his workload this spring like a veteran player, which means altering his ramp-up.

“I'm walking through each guy’s player plan as they're coming in the office the past few days,” Schumaker said. “There's no setbacks or anything. We're just kind of walking through what's best for them. How many at-bats do you need before you enter a season, because everyone's different.”

Wyatt Langford Looking for Boost at Plate

Texas Rangers outfielder Wyatt Langford. | Jesse Gann / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Being any team’s No. 4 overall pick comes with expectations. But Langford’s swift rise through the Rangers organization after he was selected in the first round of the 2023 MLB draft, followed by making the opening day roster at age 22, push those expectations higher.

In two seasons with Texas, he’s slashed .247/.335/.423 with 38 home runs and 136 RBI. But he believes there is so much left untapped. When he spoke to reporters on Sunday after he reported, he sounded just a big frustrated, even after he was named the teams’ MVP for 2025 with a .241 batting average, 22 home runs and 62 RBI.

“I feel like I'm better than a .240 hitter or whatever I hit last year,” he said.

The left fielder wants to cut down on strikeouts. He sees that as his best path to lifting his average. He had 151 strikeouts last season, up from 115 in his rookie season. Discipline is important but so is health. Langford went on the injured list three times last season with oblique strains. That required a change in his offseason routine to try and prevent those in 2026.

To accomplish that, he did more rotational exercises with a medicine ball and more rotational lifting to strengthen the outside of his core muscles.

It's those two there's only one significant question around Langford and that's what position he'll play? MLB Network named him the second-best center fielder in baseball earlier this year, even though the Rangers seem intent on playing Langford and left field and Evan Carter in center field, assuming both are healthy. Langford expressed no preference to a position.

“Whatever is best for us, for me and Evan, the team to win really,” Langford said. “I mean we both can play both positions, so it's doesn't matter really.”

It’s the sort of thing a leader says. With the trade of Marcus Semien to the New York Mets, there is some consideration to who will be the leader of the team, as Semien filled that role during his four seasons with the Rangers.

Is it too much to ask for the 24-year-old Langford to be that leader? Schumaker doesn’t think so.

“I've been around 24-year-olds that were leaders of teams, so there's no doubt,” Schumaker said. “We talked about age yesterday. It doesn't really matter to me about the age thing. This is his third year in the big leagues, so most guys last less than three years. So he's considered a veteran, so I think he'll be OK.”

Texas and Langford are hoping for better than OK in 2026.