Rangers' corresponding roster move for Wyatt Langford's return is a major bummer

For the Texas Rangers, the big storyline to start the 2024 season was Wyatt Langford's arrival in the big leagues. Drafted less than a year ago, Langford's ascent through the minor leagues was so awe-inspiring that the Rangers had to at least consider calling him up early this season.

So, when Langford put together a fantastic spring training, Texas couldn't help themselves and had to see what he could do in the majors by adding him to the Opening Day roster.

Unfortunately, the results so far in games that actually count this season have been much more mixed. While Langford has certainly shown glimpses of his dynamic ability, his .224/.295/.293 slash line through his first 129 plate appearances has left a lot to be desired. Making matters worse, Langford suffered a hamstring injury at the beginning of May and has been out ever since joining what seems like most of the Rangers' roster on the shelf.

Fortunately, the latter problem for Langford appears to be resolved as he was activated from the injured list and is back in Texas' lineup. The good news got even better with Nathan Eovaldi coming back and starting Tuesday's game.

Unfortunately, a day can't go by without a Texas player getting hurt, as Evan Carter is now headed for the IL.

Texas Rangers News: Rangers activate Langford and Eovaldi from IL, but lose Evan Carter

Now that Langford is back from the injured list, the trick is going to be for him to find a way to be more productive. Langford has really struggled to time up fastballs from big-league pitchers this season, along with some other issues (and no amount of hamstring health is going to help with that without a real adjustment from him).

As for Eovaldi, he has been trending towards returning to the mound for a while now. The Rangers had debated giving Eovaldi a rehab start before bringing him back from his groin injury, but it sounds like Texas liked how he has looked and have enough confidence to just throw him back in there without a trip to the minors.

Sadly, Carter joins what is an obscenely long list of Rangers players that have required injury down time this year. Carter has really been scuffling at the plate and manager Bruce Bochy has basically avoided playing him against lefties entirely lately. Hopefully he bounces back quickly and can establish himself again soon, but there is a silver lining that Langford's return came at the right time.

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