Prospect Langford's 1st big league homer a wild one

ARLINGTON -- Rangers rookie Wyatt Langford saw the ball hit off the right-center-field wall and turned on the jets. Once he saw third-base coach Tony Beasley aggressively windmilling, he knew he was home free -- quite literally.

Langford, the Rangers’ top prospect, is mostly known for his 70-grade power, so the fact that he didn’t hit a home run in his first 26 MLB games was surprising in and of itself.

In his first at-bat of the Rangers’ 4-3 win over the Reds on Sunday afternoon, there was a split second when the ball left Langford’s bat at 101.4 mph, that the entirety of Globe Life Field thought he had finally notched that elusive home run.

And he did, just not as anyone expected it.

Langford’s line drive hit off the wall in right-center field, bouncing around at the warning track. The 22-year-old -- who has the 11th quickest sprint speed in baseball, according to Statcast, at 29.5 feet/second -- ran with his hair on fire.

Beasley didn’t hesitate to windmill him home, where Langford was safe by a mile without a throw from Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz. Langford’s home-to-home time was 15.18 seconds, the fifth-fastest home-to-home sprint speed by a Ranger since Statcast started tracking in 2015. It was the third fastest this year in MLB, behind De La Cruz (14.96) and Jonatan Clase (15.08).

“I feel like I've hit a bunch of balls pretty good,” Langford said. “It was just a matter of getting that first one, I guess. And I got it. I got it in a weird way, but I got it. Whenever I saw it kick off the wall like that, it hit off that little corner of the bullpen, I saw it bounced pretty funny. So I started running. I wasn’t surprised.”

Langford is just the fifth player in Rangers franchise history, including when they were originally known as the Washington Senators from 1961-71, to hit an inside-the-park home run for his first career Major League home run. The last to do so in the Majors was Rangers infielder Josh Smith on July 11, 2022, against Oakland at Globe Life Field. The other three players in club history to hit an inside-the-park homer as their first dinger are Mike Epstein (June 5, 1967), Craig Gentry (Sept. 23, 2011) and Marc Sagmoen (April 17, 1997).

Overall, Langford is the 553rd player in AL/NL history since 1900 whose first homer was an inside-the-park tater. He is the 14th player to do it since 2000. He is also the first player in at least the last 30 years to have his first career hit be an infield single and first career home run be inside-the-park, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Langford’s hit would have been an outside-the-park homer in six ballparks, including Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park.

“I don't know what the odds are for the first home run being inside the park, but once it hit that wall, I said to [offensive coordinator] Donnie [Ecker] that it was an inside-the-parker because he can run,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “I know that was a big home run for him. I'm sure he's glad to get that goose egg off the board and put a number there. But it just missed going out. We thought it was out, in fact, but once it [hit] off the wall like that, like I said, 'He's going to have a home run here.'”

Langford joked that he got a little bit of smack talk from his teammates in the dugout for staying on his feet while rounding the bases this time. In an April 24 win over the Mariners, the outfielder face planted between second and third base while trying to extend a double into a triple.

“Everybody just told me, ‘Good job staying on [your] feet,’” Langford said with a laugh.

Langford’s lack of homers has been one of the biggest shocks of the Rangers’ season, and has likely been one of the many factors in the offensive struggles as a whole early on. At the conclusion of Sunday’s game, he’s hitting .248 with a .652 OPS.

It’s all shocking for a player who recorded a 1.166 OPS, while tying the single-season record at the University of Florida with 26 home runs in 2022 as a junior. After he was selected No. 4 overall by the Rangers in last year’s MLB Draft, he proceeded to launch 10 homers with a 1.157 OPS in 44 games across four Minor League levels.

He even led the Cactus League in RBIs and OPS in Spring Training.

All of that power has taken time to translate to the big league stage.

“With young guys, you don't want them trying to do too much or give them too much information,” Bochy said. “He's here because he's gifted. So hopefully he's gonna get that timing where he wants it and he's getting good swings off, better swings. But the point of contact has probably been a little back a little bit more than when he normally does.”