{"id":540470,"date":"2026-03-14T18:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T18:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/540470\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T18:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T18:45:13","slug":"why-budding-rangers-superstar-could-join-al-mvp-race-per-mlb-insider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/540470\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Budding Rangers Superstar Could Join AL MVP Race, per MLB Insider"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wyatt Langford<\/a> enters his third season with the Texas Rangers at a point in his career where his numbers and his status in the game could take a big jump.<\/p>\n

He was the Rangers<\/a>\u2019 first round pick in 2023, and he cruised through the minor league system, to the point where there was buzz that he might get called up during the World Series due to injuries in the outfield. <\/p>\n

If you like our content, choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google.<\/a><\/p>\n

He made his Major League debut in 2024 and in two seasons he’s already been an American League Gold Glove finalist in left field, and he’s emerged as one of Texas\u2019 top power hitters.<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s quite possible he could be an even bigger deal in 2026.<\/p>\n

Wyatt Langford\u2019s Potential for 2026 Greatness\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Rangers left fielder Wyatt Langford. | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan <\/a>recently released his season preview for the season and he noted that he wouldn\u2019t be surprised if Langford, who has never been an All-Star, finishes in the Top 5 of AL MVP voting after this season. <\/p>\n

\u201cYes, the 24-year-old is that good, and he’s showing it in spring training, where he has been one of the best hitters in the Cactus League. Spring stats are as reliable as airplane Wi-Fi, sure, but Langford emerging as a star is based on far more than a few at-bats against mediocre pitching staffs. It’s the tools. It’s the talent. It’s time,\u201d Passan wrote.<\/p>\n

In 10 spring training games Langford has slashed .417\/.481\/.875 with three home runs and 10 RBI. If those numbers hold it will be his second spring training with a batting average of at least .400. in his 2024 spring training he hit 10 home runs. <\/p>\n

The Rangers have high aspirations for Langford, too. President of baseball operations Chris Young <\/a>has made no secret that he would like to lock Langford up into a long-term extension as he enters his final pre-arbitration season. There’s been little movement on that front, but a successful 2026 only bolsters Langford\u2019s case for a long-term deal.<\/p>\n

Langford sees the chance for improvement, too. In two seasons with Texas, he\u2019s slashed .247\/.335\/.423 with 38 home runs and 136 RBI. When he spoke to reporters earlier in spring training, he sounded just a bit frustrated, even after he was named the Rangers\u2019 MVP for 2025 with a .241 batting average, 22 home runs and 62 RBI. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I’m better than a .240 hitter or whatever I hit last year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Some MLB analysts have written about Langford’s potential to be a 30-30 player. He’s already a 20-20 player based on his performance last season. But for him to level up in 2026 he believes he needs to cut down on strikeouts. He had 151 strikeouts last season, up from 115 in his rookie season. <\/p>\n

The Rangers open the regular season on March 26 in Philadelphia. Langford is expected to be the opening-day left fielder. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wyatt Langford enters his third season with the Texas Rangers at a point in his career where his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-540470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}