Player of the month honor showcases this Rangers habit for late season hot streaks

At the tail end of the second big league season in what fans hope will be a long, successful career, Texas Rangers outfielder Wyatt Langford is once again shining in the late season spotlight.

After going off in the month of September and October of his rookie season in 2024, Langford turned around a struggling summer with a hot month of August and is looking to keep it going into the final month of 2025 as the Rangers hunt down a postseason spot.

The 23-year-old Florida native will have a bit more pressure to navigate this September though with the absences of Marcus Semien, Corey Seager and hit outfield-mate Evan Carter.

Rangers' August Player of the Month making late season performances a yearly occurrence

During his rookie season last year, Langford struggled to start the year and a lot of people around Major League Baseball began to wonder if it was another big-time draft pick called up way too soon.

After dealing with an injury in May, he came back stronger than ever and ended the season on one of the hottest streaks seen from a rookie in franchise history. Langford won American League Rookie and Player of the Month Honors in September.

This August was more of the same for Langford, slashing .287/.424/.521 with 5 homers, 14 RBIs, 7 doubles, 21 runs scored, drew 21 walks and had a .945 OPS in 27 games. It was a month that earned the outfielder the Rangers' Player of the Month award.

Currently, the former fourth overall pick leads the Texas Rangers this season in home runs (21) and walks (58), while trailing just Seager for the team lead in OBP, SLG, OPS and behind Adolis Garcia and Semien for RBIs.

Will Langford be able to keep hot streak going under pressure of postseason race?

As mentioned earlier, Texas is without Semien, Seager, Carter and others down the stretch run of the season. And as of Monday, they might be without Garcia for a handful of games after hurting his quad in Arizona.

While there are 14-15 other players that by all means need to step up alongside Langford, most of the burden to drive in runs will be on him and DH Joc Pederson, who has also transformed his season from an abysmal first half.

It's still early into September but Langford is only hitting 2-for-12 (.167) in the first three games of the month. With six huge games against the Houston Astros in their future, as well as, bouts against the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers and postseason hopeful New York Mets, the Rangers will need Wyatt more than ever down the stretch.