ARLINGTON — Wyatt Langford can describe his sophomore campaign with the Texas Rangers in one word.
“OK.”
Despite becoming the youngest player in franchise history to record 20 runs and 20 stolen bases — a feat which he accomplished last week against the Houston Astros — the outfielder still felt like he was held back.
“I felt like I was kind of battling some injuries all along,” Langford said ahead of Tuesday night’s series opener against the Minnesota Twins. “And that was kind of aggravating to deal with. It’s kind of something I would like to work harder in the offseason to prevent because I want to be out there every single day.”
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But he had to deal with it again hours later. Langford left the game with “left side tightness” in the fifth inning. Michael Helman replaced Langford in center field in the Rangers’ 4-1 loss that officially extinguished any remaining playoff hopes.
Langford’s injury is the same one that prevented him from playing in losses to Miami on Friday and Saturday. But the outfielder returned on Sunday, going 1-2 with a solo home run.
Still, despite playing on Sunday and having an off day on Monday, Langford said the side tightness is “just really not getting better.”
He felt sore during his first at-bat against the Twins. Then, it became harder to manage during his second and final appearance at the plate on Tuesday night.
“I just tried to battle it through that whole at-bat,” Langford said.
Before facing the Marlins, Langford missed 17 games in two separate trips to the injured list. He missed nine straight in April with a right oblique strain and then eight straight from June 25-July 5 with a left oblique strain.
The side tightness returned against the Astros last week. He said it felt similar to the injuries that sidelined him earlier this season.
Manager Bruce Bochy and Langford did not say whether the injury would shut down Langford for the rest of the season.
“We’re talking about that now,” Bochy said. “I’m getting with training staff to see if this is an IL and don’t push it anymore, and see how much worse it’s got. We got to do what’s right, which we’ve done.”
Langford said he’s “not completely sure what the plan is.” He’s going to see how he feels heading into Wednesday’s game against the Twins.
But whether he returns this year or not, Langford knows his off-season will be spent attempting to figure out how to prevent the injury that has plagued him all year.
And how is he going to do it? He’s not entirely sure.
“It’s the golden nugget,” he said. “I wish I knew the total answer for that. But I mean just go out there and work as hard as I can to be prepared to play 162 games.”
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