SURPRISE, Ariz. — The hype monster is coming back for Wyatt Langford. He can hear the roar, and he acknowledges everyone’s expectations. Langford just ignores all of it.
He ignored it in college at Florida when he went from going 1-for-4 as a freshman to a first-team All-American and Golden Spikes national player of the year semifinalist as a junior. The outfielder ignored it in 2023 when, on the day the Texas Rangers took him No. 4 overall in the MLB Draft, the coach from Vanderbilt said Langford was the closest thing college baseball had ever seen to Mike Trout.
Put that on him, why don’t you?
“I mean, I feel like I do a pretty good job of compartmentalizing that, and not really thinking about it,” Langford told Pitcher List in an interview from spring training Wednesday.
“I feel like I’ve had to deal with that kind of thing coming through college, bursting on the scene my sophomore year, and then going into my junior year, which was like, my draft year. There was a lot of hype and stuff around that.”
OK, but how about THIS: Langford ranks in the top 50 in ADP in fantasy baseball, and was even taken 18th overall in recent draft at the National Fantasy Championships, a real thing. The picks leading up went like this: Mookie Betts, Yordan Alvarez, Julio Rodríguez and … Langford. Now that’s high praise. Some of these fantasy leagues don’t mess around. Once word got out that Langford had healed from a mild oblique injury, and he followed up with his first home run of spring training Tuesday, the hype monster was roaring loudly for Langford in the fantasy world.
Langford said he plays fantasy football (ooh, does Joc Pederson know?). But he stays away from that side of his own sport.
“I mean, I don’t really know how much I can talk about the fantasy stuff,” Langford said.
Because it’s too much like gambling?
“Definitely,” Langford said.
The seamy underbelly of the National Pastime that is fantasy sports! Certain baseball commissioners (of the past) would applaud him.
Langford has no time for all the noise because he’s working to pick up where he left off in 2024, winning AL Rookie of the Month and AL Player of the Month in September. Langford went 30-for-100 with eight home runs in the season’s final month. Overall, he slashed .253/.325/.415 with 16 home runs, 25 doubles, 19 stolen bases, and 51 walks in 134 games. Very good for a rookie at 22 years old. Not quite Mike Trout’s rookie season at age 20 in 2012 when he led the league in WAR and came in second in AL MVP. But very promising. Maybe an outline of Mike Trout.
About that rookie year for Langford. It started with difficulty. He had one home run in his first 31 games before being sidelined with a hamstring injury. He produced well once he returned in June, but struggled again in July and August before getting right in September. Langford said it wasn’t a matter of being crushed by hype or expectations, but instead by the quality of competition.
“Just the talent at that level — I’d never seen anything like it,” Langford said. “It took me a while to get used to it.”
Teammate Marcus Semien said Langford impressed him with his professionalism as a rookie, and wasn’t surprised that early struggles gave way to success.
“He shows up ready to work every single day,” Semien said. “He’s very consistent. And when you have that kind of talent and you already know how to work and be consistent, it’s only a matter of time to where your talent takes over on the field.”
One of the talents that Langford has, that the best ballplayers have, is the ability to tune out crowd noise, or media chatter, or even their own struggles. Being able to flush a bad day. Move on to the next.
“It happens every year, you know? Guys getting caught up in it, and they start thinking about it, especially when they’re playing bad,” Langford said. “And it kind of gets worse. Playing good fixes everything. Playing good makes it a lot easier.”
That’s what happened to Langford in 2024. Maybe not that his own preferred pace, but how he finished the season was a great way to pivot into ’25.
“Having the big last month last year, having my best month be the last month — eight homers or something with a pretty good average — that helped me as far as my confidence,” Langford said. “As far as everyone else, they could say, ‘Maybe he’s going to do it again.’ None of that matters really, because it’s all up to me to go out there and just play.”
That’s how the Rangers go about their business — individually and collectively, Semien said. No matter if it’s him, Corey Seager, manager Bruce Bochy, or whomever, a lot of personalities in the clubhouse lead by example. Inexperienced players have many places to turn, and Langford will if necessary. He definitely pays attention, Semien said.
Like the great Yogi Berra once said, probably, “You can observe a lot by watching.” Semien said Langford is like a junior Yogi in that respect.
“He just watches how everybody goes about their business and takes anything he can from us,” Semien said. “But you know, if he didn’t have any veterans to lean on. I still think he’d be fine. But he’s also in a good clubhouse.”