Texas Rangers Brass Speaks on Picking Florida OF Wyatt Langford No. 4 Overall in the Draft
The Texas Rangers, in first place in the American League West right now, also had the No. 4 overall pick in the MLB Draft on Sunday.
With that pick, they selected University of Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford, who just led the Gators to the College World Series championship series.
Here's a portion of his draft prospect profile from MLB.com:
Langford played three sports at Trenton High School in Florida before heading to Gainesville to focus on baseball at the University of Florida. He barely played as a freshman but burst onto the scene in 2022 as a sophomore, earning All-American status by leading the SEC and tying Matt LaPorta’s single-season Gators record with 26 home runs while finishing with a .356/.447/.719 line. A solid performance with Team USA last summer added to his resume as one of the best hitters in the 2023 Draft class, something he only cemented with another strong spring after shaking off an early injury.
Langford has five-tool potential. He can really hit, with excellent swing mechanics and a very good approach at the plate, one that helped him limit strikeouts while drawing walks. It also aided in his ability to tap into his considerable raw power, which some area scouts said is plus-plus.
In addition, after the draft, Rangers brass spoke on the selection of Langford. Here's Chris Young, Rangers GM, courtesy of the Rangers Player Development account on Twitter:
"Just thrilled that we had the opportunity to draft Wyatt. We certainly didn't know how things were going to transpire in front of us in the draft. We thought it was a very strong class at the top of the draft and we would be very happy with any number of these players. But Wyatt, specifically, was someone that we were thrilled when we had the opportunity to select him...."
The draft continues on Monday.
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