3 reasons Wyatt Langford’s injury will ignite the Rangers’ offense

The Rangers were dealt a tough hand on Wednesday, placing outfielder Wyatt Langford on the injured list with a right oblique strain.

The 24-year-old exited Tuesday’s game in Chicago after his seventh inning at-bat. The next day he received an MRI which revealed the strain. After the news of his IL stint, Langford told reporters that he first felt some tightness after the first swing of that at-bat. He also said he attempted to talk the team out of an IL stint but ultimately was convinced it was better for his long-term health this season.

A bit disheartening for an offense that has been pretty non-existent through the first 13 games of the season. Langford is batting .244 with 4 home runs, 6 RBIs and 2 stolen bases in 41 at-bats this year. The Rangers went out on Wednesday without Langford and put up six runs, salvaging the finale of the Cubs’ series with a 6-1 victory, thanks to a two-homer game from Corey Seager.

While there’s still a long way to go for the offense to break out. I predict that Langford’s stint on the IL will wake up the offense, and here’s 3 reasons why.

3 reasons Langford missing time due to injury will be wake up moment for the Rangers’ offense

Josh Jung is back

Jung was reactivated from the injured list prior to Tuesday’s game against Chicago. He immediately made an impact, going 3-for-4 and ending the evening a home run away from a cycle, despite Texas losing 10-6.

On Wednesday the team put up another six runs and Jung was in the middle of it again. In the fifth inning, the 26-year-old scorched a RBI double off the ivy in center field to give Texas a 4-1 lead at the time.

People have said this time and time again but it rings true. With Josh Jung in the lineup, the team seems to find its groove offensively. When he returned from his thumb injury in 2023, the team clicked and had a legendary postseason run. Now in his 2 games back, the team put up back-to-back 6-run games, which tied the season high of runs in a game.

Corey Seager is now also finding his groove

The calf injury definitely slowed down Seager’s ability in the first weeks of the regular season.

Heading into the Cubs series, Seager was batting .179, an OPS in then.400s and only one long ball. Now, he’s hitting .220 with 3 homers and a .712 OPS. It was capped off with a multi-homer game on Wednesday afternoon.

We saw him slowly getting his timing and started to look a bit more comfortable in the batter’s box. He was ripping balls 100+ MPH off the bat, yet finding no results. It was a matter of time until the break happened.

With Seager and Jung firing on all cylinders, this offense goes from good to great in no time.

The 2 J’s are lighting it up at the bottom of the order

Jonah Heim and Josh Smith. What a start to the season it’s been for these two.

Smith is just one-upping his 2024 season with a scorching hot first 11 games, hitting .308 with a .938 OPS. Heim on the other hand was desperately in search of a bounce back season and thus far he’s been the team’s fireball, hitting .310 with 3 homers and hit a walk-off single on Sunday against Tampa Bay.

It was a concept that was so successful for Texas two years ago. Getting that sort of production from the bottom of your order, was part of their championship formula.

Now I’m unsure how it will all play out. Langford has been one of the team’s biggest offensive weapons early in the season but there’s something about facing adversity that ignites a team. And once more and more people start clicking offensively, the hits from others will start rolling as well.