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Rangers make shocking Opening Day roster decision that fans will love

Rangers fans won't have to wait long to see the star of spring training in the big leagues.
Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Nolan Writin'

Cincinnati Reds v Texas Rangers / John E. Moore III/GettyImages

Throughout spring training, the elephant in the room has been whether or not the Texas Rangers were really going to include Wyatt Langford on their Opening Day roster. The idea itself seems ludicrous considering that Langford was only just selected fourth overall in the MLB Draft less than a year ago.

However, Langford's pro career has been ludicrous in a lot of ways. He immediately joined the Rangers' minor league ranks and in just 44 games down on the farm, he posted a video game-esque 1.157 OPS and managed to make it all the way to Triple-A long before the vast majority of draftees even make it out of A-ball.

Between his stellar pro debut and his annihilation of the competition this spring (more on that in a minute), the Rangers had little choice but to reward him, and reward him they did! Langford was informed that he was indeed going to be on the Rangers' Opening Day roster.

Rangers News: Wyatt Langford's insane spring propels him to Opening Day roster spot

So how did we get to the point where including a guy like Langford with so little pro experience on the Rangers' big league roster right out of camp turned into a formality? Well, it is simple: Langford would not be denied this spring and gave Texas no other option but to give him a shot.

Despite the fact that Langford came into spring training with 200 plate appearances to his name in the minors, he absolutely demolished everyone, including plenty of seasoned pitchers. In 17 spring training games in 2024, he slashed .388/.446/.796 with six homers and 19 RBI. He is third in all of baseball this spring with those six homers and leads all qualified hitters in MLB in RBI, OPS, slugging, hits (tied for first with Ketel Marte) while coming in second for runs scored.

What other decision was there for the Rangers to make here? Sure, Texas could have survived without him on the Opening Day roster and it must have been tempting to try and squeeze another year of service time out of him by holding him down in the minors. However, the Rangers know that Langford is on the path to superstardom in this league and the first step to keeping their relationship strong to build towards a long-term future with him in their lineup is by giving him the opportunity he has earned.

More Texas Rangers News from Nolan Writin'

Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.