The Texas Rangers have officially secured their first spring training win with an 11-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Monday.
Texas has already picked up losses against the Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants, and Chicago Cubs over the weekend before securing the win over the White Sox.
Although some may grow concerned about the Rangers’ slow start in spring training, the club is likely testing different lineups and layers that could help the team when the regular season begins.
One of the most notable improvements on the roster comes from former top prospect Jack Leiter, who struggled last season but has shown significant growth during the start of spring training.
Leiter averaged 98.8 mph during his two innings pitched against the Giants, marking a 2.4 mph increase from his career average, according to Sports Illustrated.
Rangers president of baseball operations, Chris Young, was impressed by Leiter’s improvements and hopes to see this growth continue over the coming weeks.
“Thought he was very good, I mean obviously the stuff was hot, it was coming out hot and he looked really good when he executed pitches,” said Young, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“For him to continue to be able to work ahead in counts and then finish hitters once he gets ahead in the count is gonna be key, but I really liked what I saw.”
Young further discussed the growth of the Rangers’ outfield and the need for more players to step up this season, specifically pointing out Wyatt Langford as the most impressive player from that group.
“While I’m hopeful that our outfield is going to be very good this year, the reality is last year Wyatt Langford was the only one who really performed at a level that was above kinda what we needed,” he said, per FWST.
“We need some of these guys stay healthy, to perform at their accustomed level and if not we’re going to have competition. This team is built to win…we’re looking forward to watching these guys compete.”
Langford said he is currently “focused on trying to get healthy,” but he is also working with new outfield coach Tony Beasley to improve upon last season’s performance.
“Beasley is going to be the outfield coach now that we lost Will Venable. He was great, definitely helped a lot last year. So, me and Beas are kind of hashing it out right now trying to figure out what needs to get worked on,” Langford explained, per The Dallas Morning News.