Wyatt Langford's injury could end up being a blessing in disguise for Rangers

The Rangers' horrid luck with injuries continued over the weekend as they lost one of their star rookies for a while.

Eric Cole

Cincinnati Reds v Texas Rangers / Ron Jenkins/GettyImages

Wyatt Langford's career with Texas Rangers is not off to a banner start. After Langford created an impossible amount of hype during the 2023 draft and then in spring training, he has struggled in the regular season with a 68 wRC+ and only has one stolen base and a single home run to his name (although it was a pretty cool homer).

Some had even begun to wonder if the Rangers could send Langford back down to the minors to get more at-bats. The idea isn't that crazy as he did get very little in the way of plate appearances in the minors before joining the big leagues, but a big reason why his numbers weren't so great was due to a relatively low .287 BABIP, which pointed to some bad luck.

All of that is moot now, however, as the Rangers revealed that Langford was headed to the IL with a hamstring injury on Sunday after leaving Saturday's game early in clear discomfort running to first base. However, Langford's injury could end up being a blessing in disguise.

Texas Rangers News: Wyatt Langford placed on injured list with hamstring strain

According to Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, Langford's hamstring injury is a Grade 1 strain which is on the mild side. That said, he will still be out for at least 3-4 weeks while he recovers, and Texas plans to announce the corresponding roster move before Monday's game against the Athletics.

Obviously any player missing time isn't ideal as it's going to end up being a month's worth of plate appearances. However, Langford's time on the IL could also be a chance for him to reset and evaluate where he has been going wrong through the first month of the season. A minor league rehab stint could also get him some at-bats away from the pressures of the majors to get his timing back and allow him to find some success before making his return to the bigs.

Throughout Langford's struggles, the Rangers have been pretty steadfast that they are not worried about the rookie's slow start. While there is no denying that his results have been sub par, the team still believes he's a big league player right now and, odds are, he will be right back in there once he is fully healthy.

However, Texas does have Ezequiel Duran on the big league roster to help fill while Langford is out, so perhaps Texas taking its time in make sure that Langford is healthy and in a good spot at the plate may not be the worst idea.

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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.