Florida Baseball: Wyatt Langford learns MLB Draft fate today
![Florida's utility Wyatt Langford (36) with his second home run on the night against the Miami Hurricanes, Friday, March 3, 2023, at Condron Family Baseball Park in Gainesville, Florida. The Gators beat the Hurricanes 10-4 in Game 1. [Cyndi Chambers/ Gainesville Sun] 2023Gator Baseball March 3 2023 Condron Family Ballpark Miami Hurricanes](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2F48a4cdc39cb4241729c4db26b9ff8885c0ea4ae2363724bf354a316030314816.jpg "Florida's utility Wyatt Langford (36) with his second home run on the night against the Miami Hurricanes, Friday, March 3, 2023, at Condron Family Baseball Park in Gainesville, Florida. The Gators beat the Hurricanes 10-4 in Game 1. [Cyndi Chambers/ Gainesville Sun] 2023Gator Baseball March 3 2023 Condron Family Ballpark Miami Hurricanes")
Before today, the highest someone from Florida baseball has been selected in the MLB Draft was third Mike Zunino, who was selected by the Seattle Mariners in 2013.
That could change today as recent projections have Wyatt Langford pegged as the potential first-overall pick to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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He was a first-team All-American last season and a second-team member this season. He was also a 2023 Golden Spikes Award Semifinalist, though we made the case he should have been a finalist.
If you follow MLB Draft projections at all, the word on Langford is that in any other season, he could be a potential slam dunk first-overall selection. But with Dylan Crews and Paul Skenes from LSU, along with high school prospects Max Clark and Walker Jenkins making noise, most projections have had Langford being selected around fourth or fifth in the draft.
In reality, there isn’t a bad home for Langford to land within the top five picks. In order, the first five picks go to:
- Pittsburgh Pirates
- Washington Nationals
- Detroit Tigers
- Texas Rangers
- Minnesota Twins
The main thing for Langford is he does not want to fall to sixth. The Oakland Athletics pick sixth.
But some projections have started to bump Langford ahead of Crews to become the first overall pick. Keith Law of The Athletic noted in his mock draft that there is a belief that Crews is going to want more money than Langford is going to command, and as such, it would make it more difficult for the Pirates to sign the rest of their draft picks if Crews eats up more of their allotted draft money.
If selected first overall, Langford would become the first Florida Gator in any of the major sports to be selected with the first pick.
Langford is expected to be joined in the first round by Florida baseball teammate Hurston Waldrep, who should get selected somewhere around the 20th pick.
The MLB Draft starts tonight at 7 PM.
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