Throughout an introductory press convention for outfielder Brandon Nimmo this week, Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Younger one way or the other expressed each confidence and uncertainty about his latest acquisition. Nimmo, he stated, would deal with proper discipline for the Rangers in 2026, although he didn’t sound too certain about it.
“We’re not 100% dedicated to [Nimmo in right],” Younger informed reporters on Monday. “I feel it’s doubtless the place he’ll play, however [those are] conversations that we’ll have with Brandon, with [manager] Skip [Schumaker] and with Wyatt [Langford], and actually ensuring that we perceive all features of this and the place they’re most comfy. I do assume we now have three excellent, proficient, very proficient outfielders. On the outset, I feel it’s doubtless Brandon performs proper, however I feel that’s an additional dialog.”
There are a variety of concerns right here. Nimmo, at this part of his profession, is sort of definitely greatest in left discipline. His knees are jacked up; his arm is noodle-adjacent. Evan Carter nominally profiles as a middle fielder, however accidents have stored him off the sector for a lot of the final two seasons; it’s potential a nook might be one of the best ways to make sure his availability. Langford’s identified proper discipline expertise is restricted to a single sport for the 2022 Peninsula Pilots of the collegiate summer time Coastal Plain League.
For my part, there’s just one option to kind this mess out: Decide to enjoying Langford in heart.
There’s potential draw back right here, in fact. Growing his defensive obligations might hinder his offensive growth, and his expertise in heart has been considerably restricted up to now in his younger profession. But when it really works out, the upside is big. There’s maybe no simpler participant to construct round than a famous person heart fielder, an vital consideration because the Rangers enter a interval of roster transition, albeit a shorter one during which they’re nonetheless trying to contend. And from what I’ve seen, Langford is greater than able to dealing with the place.
The concept of Langford as a full-time heart fielder would’ve been unthinkable as not too long ago as just a few months in the past. All the general public prospect writers praised Langford’s main league-ready bat within the spring of 2024, however they have been equally skeptical of the state of his glovework. Even Langford’s most optimistic evaluators thought he was destined for left discipline. Baseball Prospectus famous that “his routes and reactions are usually not good at current,” although the publication acknowledged that his plus-plus velocity might portend effectively for his future growth. On the 20-80 scale, FanGraphs’ lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen gave Langford a 30 future worth fielding grade.
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“Despite the fact that he has the velocity for heart and has performed there somewhat bit, his really feel for the place (and for taking part in outfield protection basically) could be very poor,” Eric wrote in February 2024. “He’s merely not comfy on the market, however his pure velocity provides him a shot to be an influence defender if he can discover his footing over time.”
Whereas the bat has been a slight disappointment — he’s been 15% above common in his quick profession, vulnerable to taking just a few too many pitches whereas posting good-but-not-great energy numbers — the protection, as soon as considered the one gap in his profile, has been glorious.
The Rangers eased Langford into main league motion following his meteoric rise by means of their system — he made the Opening Day roster in 2024, after getting drafted fourth total the earlier June — primarily DHing him for the primary couple months whereas he labored on bettering his protection away from sport motion. Across the summertime, they took off the coaching wheels; from then on, Langford surprisingly graded out as a plus defender in left.
He was even higher in his sophomore marketing campaign. Largely confined to left discipline as a rookie, he expanded his duties in his second yr, dealing with 45 video games in heart between Carter’s accidents and Leody Taveras’ ineffectiveness. He got here away trying like one of many higher outfielders within the sport. His +9 FRV (fielding run worth, a Statcast measurement) landed him eleventh amongst all outfielders; his +16 DRS was even higher, tying him for fourth in the identical pattern. He was equally good in each left and heart, placing up +5 Outs Above Common (OAA) at every place.
The extra subtle defensive fashions agreed with these metrics, grouping him alongside the league’s greatest ballhawks. A kind of fashions — referred to as Situational Fielding — was created by Vivienne Pelletier, a public analyst who additionally works for an undisclosed main league group. Not like FRV, which is context-neutral, the Situational Fielding mannequin makes use of adjustments in anticipated win likelihood to credit score (and debit) outfielders for his or her efficiency in high-leverage spots. (Verify the hyperlink above for a extra detailed rationalization.) By Vivienne’s mannequin, Langford ranked because the fourth-best outfielder within the sport, behind solely Ceddanne Rafaela, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Victor Scott II.
Langford’s foot velocity — 89th percentile in 2025 — was by no means an issue. His points upon promotion, it appeared, have been his route-running potential and jumps. This season, these woes have been squared away. I watched each single play assigned to Langford the place the catch likelihood was graded by Statcast to be a minimum of 5% and fewer than 95%, and the weaknesses have been few and much between. Let’s take a look at some errors first to get a way of what he nonetheless has to work on, starting with a few mushy liners:
As you possibly can see, he lets each balls drop as a substitute of charging laborious for them. With extra expertise, he’ll acquire extra confidence in his reads and switch these hits into outs.
And like every outfielder, he will be haunted by the weather. Considerably unfairly, he misplaced almost two FRV on a few performs graded at 99% catch likelihood. The primary one can in all probability be chalked as much as the poor lighting at Sutter Well being Discipline:
And the second to a brilliant shiny Kansas Metropolis solar:
He additionally, hilariously, misplaced 0.9 FRV on a play the place Sam Haggerty truck-sticked him on a deep fly ball that he was in any other case in place to catch:
You may discover that every one these oopsies occurred whereas Langford was in left. For my cash, heart discipline is the place Langford is greatest suited. His arm isn’t significantly sturdy, however he can cowl big swaths of area within the blink of a watch. Additionally, he might need a better time getting appropriate reads in heart, the place he gained’t see the identical sharp hooking or slicing angles off the bat as he does within the corners.
Beneath was my favourite of his catches from final season, a 30% catch likelihood seize on a ball Corbin Carroll drove 400 ft into the hole. Langford properties in like a heat-seeking missile, making it look straightforward:
His potential to go gap-to-gap is a key function of his heart discipline play. Watch him cowl 73 ft in 4.3 seconds to chase down this J.T. Realmuto liner, a ball with only a 40% likelihood of being caught:
Sorry, Zach McKinstry — that’s not getting down:
And whereas he didn’t give you these mushy liners from Jarren Duran and Luis Robert Jr. above, he didn’t wrestle with these sort of batted balls in a broader sense. His best-rated catch of the season got here on a Xander Bogaerts line drive with some nasty topspin; the Statcast mannequin gave him only a 5% likelihood of attending to it, however an insane soar allowed him to slip just below the ball to corral it:
He can do it in heart, too. Watch him slide and snag a José Ramírez laser to maintain it from hitting the bottom:
A 115 wRC+ is boring in a nook, however in heart, he begins to seem like a star, a Julio Rodríguez for the better Dallas-Forth Price metropolitan space. In all probability, Langford’s bat will take a step ahead in his age-24 season; Steamer expects a 124 wRC+ from him in 2026, and ZIPS is much more bullish, projecting him for a .259/.347/.452 slash line with 23 dwelling runs, a 134 OPS+ and 4.8 WAR. If a place change stalls that development, the Rangers must determine in the event that they’d be higher off shifting him again to left and giving his bat an opportunity to succeed in its full potential, however I feel no matter the place he performs within the discipline, his offense will proceed to enhance.
It’s true that the Rangers are in a little bit of a transitional interval — they employed Schumaker to interchange Bruce Bochy as supervisor, non-tendered Adolis García, and traded away Marcus Semien — however they’re additionally solely two years faraway from profitable the World Sequence. Their roster as at the moment constructed remains to be able to contending, and Nimmo stated he “wanted to know that the Rangers have been dedicated to attempting to win a World Sequence” earlier than he agreed to waive his no-trade clause. As Nimmo stated, Younger assured him that “we’d be competing for World Sequence titles, yr in and yr out.” If that certainly is the case, and the Rangers are nonetheless in win-now mode, then it’s time for them to throw warning to the wind and stick Langford in heart, regardless of the developmental threat. He’s their greatest choice to man a very powerful outfield place.
