We spent the last, oh, five months of the season detailing what went wrong for the Rangers. When you go from World Champions to a losing record, the list can be exhaustive.

Instead of picking up confetti, the Rangers are spending this offseason picking up the pieces.

But, for as much self-evaluation as they must do as they prepare for 2025, they must also take into account what events and developments may have long-range positive impact.

With that said, here’s our list of the top five Encouraging Developments of the 2024 Season:

Wyatt Langford’s finish: If we’re going to truly assess a rookie’s value, there needs to be extra weight placed on performance as the season wears on. First, there is the physical and mental grind associated with the longest season of their baseball lives. Second, the rest of the league is getting better real-time scouting reports on the rookie’s strengths and weaknesses.

On this scale, Langford should finish higher than he probably will in the Rookie of the Year balloting. From June 1, when he returned from a hamstring issue, until the season’s end, he generated 3.1 WAR, according to Fangraphs, which put him 19th among the 67 players who carried heavy workloads (minimum of 400 plate appearances in that time). He posted a .796 OPS, which was well above league average. And he took home September Rookie and Player of the Month honors. He answered any questions that arose early in the season.