The Rangers plan to place Langford on the 10-day injured list Wednesday after scans revealed a Grade 1 flexor strain in his right arm. Langford exited Tuesday’s 5-1 win vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates at Globe Life Field with right forearm tightness in the fifth inning. He said that he felt a “tight soreness” in his arm after his first swing in a third-inning at-bat vs. Pirates right-hander Carmen Mlodzinski. The 24-year-old played defense in the top of the fourth and felt fine, but after he took practice swings in the cage before the fifth, his arm still felt “pretty tight.”
“It was kind of weird,” Langford said. “Nothing I’d really felt before.”
The Rangers will promote outfielder Alejandro Osuna in a corresponding move.
Tuesday’s exit marked the second time this season that Langford left a game early after he hurt himself on a swing. He exited an April 10 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers with right quad tightness after his first home run of the season. He avoided the injured list, though, but still subsequently missed the next three games. Langford has already taken four trips to the injured list because of soft tissue injuries in the first two-plus years of his big league career. He missed three weeks with a right hamstring strain in his rookie season and suffered three different oblique strains last year.