Texas Rangers Introduce Two Talented Rookies

By Dan Schlossberg

They’ve just started playing together but a pair of rookies in the lineup of the World Champion Texas Rangers are already conjuring up memories of two other outfielders who also proved an instant hit when they broke in together.

Wyatt Langford and Evan Carter, like Fred Lynn and Jim Rice before them, are brimming with talent. Not necessarily experience — just really good baseball skills.

Jim Rice (left) and Fred Lynn, rookie stars in the same season, finished first and third, respectively, in 1975 AL MVP voting.Photo byWikimedia

Carter, 21, is a left-handed hitter from Tennessee who plays center field while Langford, 22, is a righty from Florida.

Langford, the fourth overall pick in the 2023 amateur draft, is a former catcher who clouted 47 home runs at Florida over the last two seasons, earning an $8 million signing bonus that was the biggest in the history of the Rangers.

"We think he's the perfect fit for what we're building here," Rangers general manager Chris Young said. "Who he is as a person, his winning pedigree and certainly the talent as a player."

That .373 college batting average in 2023 helped the Gators reach the championship round of the College World Series. Now he’s aiming for the same thing in the majors.

Carter impressed after a late-season call-up last year but retained his rookie status. He hit .306 with five homers in 23 September games, then kept right on hitting in the playoffs.

No team has had such a rookie tandem since Lynn and Rice of the 1975 Red Sox.

Lynn played center field and batted left-handed while Rice played left and hit right-handed. Dubbed the Gold Dust Twins by the Boston media, they divided all the votes for American League Rookie of the Year.

Lynn got 23 1/2 of a possible 24, while Rice got the other half-vote. It was tough to ignore Lynn, who also became the first rookie to also win an MVP trophy.

The affable Californian hit .331 with 21 home runs, 105 runs batted in, and league highs in slugging (.567), OPS (.967), doubles (47), and runs scored (103). He also won a Gold Glove for fielding excellence.

Lynn might have clinched the award on June 18, when he tied an American League record with 16 total bases: three home runs, a triple, and an infield single in Boston’s 15-1 rout at Detroit.

“Things happen fast when you’re a rookie,” he said. “The next game, I think we headed to Baltimore and I had to deal with Jim Palmer.”

As things turned out, it was Rice and not Lynn who reached the hallowed halls of the Baseball Hall of Fame. He hit .298 with 382 home runs, winning an MVP award in 1978. But he was aided by the designated hitter, saving him the wear-and-tear Lynn endured as a wide-ranging center-fielder.

Now the Rangers hope Langford and Carter can last as long and burn as brightly as Rice and Lynn. Their success could be one of the great storylines of the new season, especially since the Rangers hope to become the first team to win consecutive World Series since the New York Yankees of 1998-99-2000.

Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron and 40 other baseball books. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.