Wyatt Langford’s inside-the-park HR shouldn't distract Rangers fans from reality

It was fun, but it doesn't define the larger picture.

Eric Cole

Cincinnati Reds v Texas Rangers / Ron Jenkins/GettyImages

Over the weekend, Texas Rangers fans were treated to Wyatt Langford getting his first home run in the big leagues finally. Even better, his first homer came in the most unlikely fashion as it was an inside-the-parker that he had to race around the bases to earn after a weird carom off the wall. He scored without incident and our long wait for his first homer was finally over.

However, Langford's profile is one that should have yielded a home run by now. He was one of the premier power hitters in the 2023 draft and Langford's performance in spring training this year had many bracing for his first round-tripper to come in the season's first week at minimum.

Obviously that didn't happen and it took until a bounce off a wonky outfield wall at the end of April for Langford to get on the board. While the source of Langford's issues has been explored here previously, the reality is that his biggest one is that he just isn't hitting the ball hard enough.

Wyatt Langford simply has to start impacting the ball more for Rangers

Sometimes, sluggers go through slumps where they hit the ball hard, but it's into the ground or straight up in the air, or they strike out too much to make enough contact to be productive. That's nothing new. We know that Langford has the ability to hit the ball hard and he does have a 111.4 max exit velocity this season, which is good. However, the rest of this batted ball profile doesn't match up with fans' expectations.

Everything from Langford's Statcast page, from his xWOBA, xSLG, average exit velocity, barrel %, and hard hit % in 2024, all range from poor to mediocre. It's one thing to have a hole in a swing or approach exploited by big league pitchers, but his strikeout rate has been more than passable this season, so it isn't like he's being completely fooled up there. The fundamental problem is that he just isn't putting forth good swings.

Some of that could just be hesitancy that comes from nerves or just not having his timing down. Nobody wants to be the guy swinging out of his shoes only to strike out three times a game as a first big league impression. However, if he doesn't start trying to drive the ball with authority, there may be a lot of long waits between homers.

After all, we're still waiting for the first one to go over the fence.

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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.