The Rangers announced that they’ve placed outfielder Wyatt Langford on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain. As relayed by Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News, Langford hurt his hamstring while attempting to stretch a single into a double during Friday’s game against the Blue Jays. Fellow outfielder Evan Carter is being activated from the IL in Langford’s place.
Langford earned a roster spot out of camp in 2024 and has been on the injured list six times since then. Today’s placement is the second hamstring injury of Langford’s career, as he missed three weeks with a right hamstring strain in May 2024. Altogether, Langford has played in 308 of 408 (75.5%) of his team’s games since reaching the Majors, including today’s game. Despite missing time, he’s established himself as one of the Rangers’ most productive players.
Langford had a 111 wRC+ in 557 plate appearances in 2024. He followed that by batting .241/.344/.431 with 22 home runs and a 118 wRC+ in 2025. Although he struck out at an above-average 26.4% clip, Langford compensated by upping his already strong walk rate to 12.9% as well as hitting for more power. Adding in his 10 Outs Above Average across left and center field, Langford was worth 4.1 fWAR in 2025, which tied for 11th among qualified outfielders.
He’s been even better when healthy this year, albeit not without changes to his profile. Langford has batted .278/.324/.500 with a 128 wRC+ in 173 plate appearances while working around a six-week absence for a right forearm strain. He’s showing career-best contact and power as well as striking out 5.0% less than in 2025. Interestingly, Langford is only walking at a 5.8% clip, which would suggest he’s sacrificing some on-base ability in exchange for more power. At the same time, Langford’s hard-hit rate and average exit velocity are both down significantly, and his .241 expected batting average and .406 expected slugging are well below his actual marks. Altogether, it looks as though Langford is still a good hitter, but also that he’s benefited from plenty of good luck.
Even then, Langford’s bat and excellent defense make him a key piece of the Rangers’ lineup, to say nothing of their playoff hopes. The team is 41-42 entering play today. They’re a half-game out of first place in the weak AL West and hold one of the three AL Wild Card spots, along with the Yankees and Guardians. The Rangers have a 101 wRC+ as a team, which is middle-of-the-pack, but they’re also in the negative by run differential (-9).
A quick return by Langford is needed to preserve that level of offense, and it also wouldn’t hurt the team to make a few additions at the trade deadline. Manager Skip Schumaker told reporters, including Kennedi Landry of MLB.com, that Langford will be out until after the All-Star break. If he requires three weeks like he did for the previous hamstring strain, Langford could be back by the end of July after a short rehab assignment.
Carter landed on the 10-day IL on June 13th with a right oblique strain. He got into one rehab game at Double-A on Friday, going 2-2 with a home run and a walk. He returns after missing just over two weeks. Prior to the oblique strain, Carter was batting a meager .176/.292/.321 with a 77 wRC+ in 229 plate appearances. Carter’s .209 average on balls in play is well below league average and helps explain the downturn. That said, Carter’s .198 expected average and .336 xSLG would still be career lows, so he’s clearly taken a few steps back from last year’s production even accounting for bad luck.
As with Langford, Carter is an asset in the field, having accrued 8 Defensive Runs Saved and 11 OAA in center field dating back to 2025. That defense has kept Carter from being a replacement-level player, though he’ll need to hit closer to last year’s 107 wRC+ to be a true asset. At the very least, Carter’s 12.7% walk rate gives him a decent OBP for someone below the Mendoza line. As a next step, he could try adjusting his swing path to generate fewer harmless flies and more line drives. Carter’s line drive rate was at 19.7% last year, but that’s fallen to 15.4% in 2026.
Photo courtesy of John E. Sokolowski, Imagn Images
