ARLINGTON, Texas — The beginning of the weekend may also be the day injured Texas Rangers outfielder Wyatt Langford takes his final step toward playing in a live game again.
Langford is preparing to participate in live batting practice on Friday at Globe Life Field, which he said on Monday should be the final step for him to be ready to leave the team and go to a minor league affiliate for a rehab assignment.
He’s eager. He hasn’t played in a Major League game since April 21.
“It’s been tough to watch because you want to play,” he said. “I couldn’t do anything for three weeks.”
Wyatt Langford’s Road Back from Injury
Starting on Monday, Langford started a series of batting practice reps in the cage, either off a machine or off a live pitcher. He’s scaffolding up to the live batting practice, which is designed to simulate game situations.
It’s traditionally the final step before a rehab assignment for a player like Langford, who suffered a right forearm strain and nearly came back at the start of May before he suffered a setback in a rehab game in Arizona.
It’s part of the reason the Rangers shut him down for a week after the setback and it’s part of the reason why they won’t put a firm timeline on when the rehab games will start.
“I’ve never seen this kind of injury before [in a hitter],” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “I think we just have to monitor it, make sure his legs are under him so that when he comes back, he’s ready to play.”
Compared to what became the false start at the beginning of May, Langford said he feels much better this time around. He even admitted that he might have been trying to come back too soon from the injury.
“The first time I felt like was just trying to get back from it,” he said.
After a full weekend of work in Anaheim, he and Schumaker feel much better about where the third-year pro is at in is recovery.
“He had a really good road trip, as far as the physical therapy and the workload,” Schumaker said. “The recovery the next day was really good. The strength was really good. So, he checked a lot of boxes.”
Langford is one of three Rangers that started on opening day that are on the injured list, including Corey Seager and Josh Smith. Before the injury, Langford was slashing .238/.274/.363 with one home run and four RBI but had broken out of a significant slump in the last few games prior to that.
