Wyatt Langford winning Rangers' Player of the Year signals a shift in franchise face

Texas Rangers outfielder Wyatt Langford was named the DFW chapter of Baseball Writers' Association of America Rangers' 2025 Player of the Year for the first time in his career earlier this week.

It's a changing of the guard comes following two straight seasons of Corey Seager winning the team honor, potentially signaling a shift in franchise dynamics. The second year player still has a lot to prove in his young career, but the accolade says a lot about what his future in a Rangers uniform might look like. 

Langford led Rangers’ rather stagnant offense in 2025 

Langford becomes the youngest player to receive the accolade since Ivan Rodriguez did so in 1995 at the age of 23. Langford, 23, was a huge part of Texas’s offense in 2025, a role he looks to continue in 2026 season and beyond.

The Florida native also provided the ball club with some much needed offensive firepower in what was arguably one of the worst years regarding team performance in recent memory. Langford paced the team with 22 home runs in 134 games played in 2025, becoming one of two players to reach the 20-home run mark. Corey Seager trailed right behind Langford with 21.

Langford’s pop wasn’t his only contribution to the team throughout the season. The outfielder was near the top of the list for quite a few offensive categories, including hits (3rd), RBIs (2nd), and doubles (2nd). His ability to remain a consistent threat at the plate for Texas will no doubt be one of their keys to success in 2026, and it looks like he’ll be just that if he keeps playing the way he has.

To add to that, Langford was named a finalist for the American League LF Gold Glove, alongside the Athletics and the eventual winner Cleveland's Steven Kwan. For a player with little outfield experience over the last two seasons, his outfield improvement has been a huge boost for the Rangers.

Langford slowly taking over as face of Rangers

Although the last few seasons have been defined by the contributions of Seager and Marcus Semien, Langford proved he should be also considered as one of the faces of the Rangers.

Given that Texas traded Semien to the Mets and Seager has been hit with injury problems over the past year, Langford is the perfect candidate to be at the helm of the Rangers.

There’s been some speculation that the Texas clubhouse took a turn for the worse throughout the season and it may be up to Langford to get the team back on track. It seems like he did his best to keep them on the right path with his production in 2025, but that wasn’t enough to produce a winning season. About to enter just his third year in the major leagues, Langford has a long career ahead of him and this could be good news for the club, as establishing his presence in the clubhouse could be the cure for the woes experienced by the team last season.

He’s young, but anyone that watches him can tell that he’s hungry. That kind of attitude is what Texas needs if they want to be successful in 2026, and it seems like the team has those same expectations of Langford. It’ll be interesting to see how he responds to being a bigger part of the leadership group for the team, but it seems like he’ll be able to handle his business and perform once again for Texas.