2025 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper: Wyatt Langford

It’s very uncommon for a team to win a World Series and own the fourth pick in the MLB Draft all in the same year. Because of new league rules and tanking stipulations, the Texas Rangers were able to select Wyatt Langford just three months before raising the Commissioner’s Trophy.

Interestingly enough, the Tigers owned the third pick in the 2023 draft. Whatever your opinion on Detroit, I’m gonna keep it easy for you here; this was a big miss. Max Clark has potential and there’s no doubt about that. 

However, something about passing on a guy who put up 26 home runs in 66 games as a Florida Gator just doesn’t sit right with me. Langford followed up that performance with a .373 batting average and 1.282 OPS in 2023. That type of raw power, not to mention dangerous speed combined with elite baseball IQ, doesn’t come along often. 

A Rollercoaster 2024

Early in spring training Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux told reporters, “I just saw the best player on the field, Langford.” This coming on the same field as Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, and Adolis Garcia. That’s what I call high praise. He went on to hit .365 with 6 home runs and 20 RBI in 21 games of spring training action. 

What would follow in the months of April and May was a big piece of humble pie served directly to Langford. It goes to show that no matter how talented you are, this league has a way of bringing you back to reality. His slow start had people worried. I was not. 

As June arrived the rust was knocked off. In that month alone he slashed .309/.368/.526 with an .894 OPS while gaining 22 RBI and 6 stolen bases.  

Langford then came crashing back down to earth in July and August. I still wasn’t worried. 

Things went from mediocre to astonishing once September rolled around. During the final month of the season, Langford smashed eight long balls while slugging .632. That mark was good for fourth-best in the game. That mark also carried me to a dynasty championship.

See why I wasn’t stressing? Rookies are susceptible to peaks and valleys. Many fans don’t seem to understand this concept. The patience paid off.

Wyatt Langford: Fantasy Sleeper?

In a year when Langford was so hyped as a result of his torrid tear through the 2023 minors and 2024 spring training, fantasy managers were overall largely disappointed with his production. It left a bad taste in many mouths.

Those teams rostering Langford who did not make their fantasy playoffs almost certainly will not be favoring him on draft day next season. His break out in September won’t matter in their eyes because as the old adage goes, “what have you done for me lately?”

Unlike those non-believers, let’s shed some light on the truth; Langford is a budding superstar. We as baseball fans and the fantasy baseball community in general expect these guys to perform like they’re already 10-year veterans who can lay off the high heat or not chase in the dirt.

Unfortunately, that’s just not the case. But lucky for us, Langford has shown all the promising characteristics in his first campaign. So while he’s still under the microscopic eye of many drafters, take advantage of his sleeper title. It won’t last long.

The Data Behind the Scenes

The common fantasy baseball player will look at Langford’s counting stats and OPS in order to determine whether or not he should be drafted come 2025. Sure, those figures are a great place to start but the sleepers and underrated gems are found deeper in the haystack that is Statcast. 

I’m happy to report that every single metric was above league-average with the exception of Sweet-Spot and Squared-Up percentage. Additionally, he showed elite promise with his bat speed, sprint speed, and chase decisions.

When I watched this kid’s at-bats during the beginning of the season, it was almost upsetting at times because he would let a 2-0 heater go right down the pipe. Langford took pitches in a way that seemed almost too conservative at times. Don’t get me wrong I love a patient hitter but we could all tell he was a young, inexperienced major league hitter during the first half of the season. This happens when a prospect is rushed through the minor leagues without much exposure to first class velocity.

Enter Father Time. 

As the season went on, we saw Wyatt get more experience which brought confidence. And confidence is a funny thing because it always seems to be the magic juice many prospects are missing. In fact, the pitch he did the most damage on in the second half, the four-seam fastball, was the same pitch he was having the most trouble with back in April and May. 

Furthermore, we haven’t even mentioned him sitting on the bench during his slump while Texas took the field defensively.

“The biggest adjustment he’s having to make is the DH thing,” said Texas manager Bruce Bochy. “He only did that a couple times in college. He’s young, has a lot of energy and you’re more involved when you’re playing the game. You don’t have too many DH’s at his age.”

Texas was smart and moved him almost exclusively to left field as June arrived. And what happened in June again? That’s right, Langford came into form, winning American League Rookie of the Month.

Let me touch on one other aspect of his swing decisions while we’re at it- I love the way he profiles in this area. When I see a hitter who doesn’t chase a lot but has a much lower whiff rate, it’s often the result of simply missing balls within the zone. And as a major league team or fantasy manager, I can live with that. A veteran who does this a lot is Kyle Schwarber. A veteran who does not is Salvador Perez. Two tremendous players, but Schwarber is the profile I’d rather see in my young rookie. And that’s exactly what happened in 2024.

Langford spit on pitches outside the zone while swinging predominantly within the zone. Even though he was missing quite a bit, he was missing on close pitches and swinging within himself. Keep doing this and results will more often than not stray positively. Things like more barrels met, an increased number of walks, and pitchers having to adjust to a keen eye. All sound good to me!

Chips on Shoulders Down in Texas

It’s no secret the Rangers were one of the most disappointing teams in the majors this season. Coming in at 21st in run differential at -55 was a stark contrast from their World Series-winning +195 in 2023. Lineup context is crucially important. Sure, this type of support didn’t help Langford but you can only point so many fingers up and down the lineup card. 

Their core of Semien, Seager, Garcia, and Carter were good enough to win a ring, why should we expect anything different in 2025? Outliers happen and I believe 2024 was one big outlier for Texas. They will not be laying down again, expect this squad to be back with a vengeance. 

A fully healthy Seager and Carter with a bounce back from Garcia will only help Langford’s numbers. Even though he only hit 16 home runs in 2024, I’m predicting north of 30 round-trippers in 2025, not to mention 25 steals. His groundball rate was never too much of an issue and he was putting the ball into the air a good amount with that upper-cut swing of his, encouraging me even more when it comes to his power potential.

Average Draft Position

While I’ve mentioned a lot about the player himself, I have not mentioned how he will be drafted. Luckily for us, he’s going to fall in the sleeper category because of his anticlimactic rookie year. Again let’s remember that he didn’t have a bad season by any means, the fantasy community just has a tendency to overreact. Believe me, that’s a good thing for the intelligent drafters out there. It’s a treat in itself that we still get to call Langford a sleeper at this point. 

It’s early to be talking 2025 mock drafts and rankings but so far many sites have Langford falling right around pick #150. So in a 10-team league that’s round #15 and in a 12-team league that’s round #12. Boy oh boy, sign me up for those prices! Are you going to find better upside at that point in the draft? 

Not a chance.

If you want to select Lane Thomas or Cody Bellinger as your outfielder around that point instead, go for it, more Langford shares for me. There isn’t a better value play offensively in the middle rounds in my opinion. We’ve seen the ceilings of Thomas and Bellinger. We haven’t seen anywhere close to Langford’s ceiling.

Summary

With a year under his belt, the best is yet to come for Wyatt Langford. All signs point to success. It is my hope to all dynasty managers that you drafted him last season because we are about to witness the truth in 2025. And if you are only playing in redraft formats next season, I encourage you to select him with confidence. So don’t come complaining to me when #36 breaks out and you own zero shares!