Per Rule 5.09(b) of Major League Baseball’s official rule book, a runner is out if he strays more than three feet from his base path to avoid a tag. In other words: no, you can’t run around a tag, we live in a society. But the rules don’t say anything about going over a tag, now do they?
We can’t prove that’s what Wyatt Langford was thinking on this particular play, but it is what we were thinking.
Just two batters into the Rangers’ game Wednesday night in Tampa, Rays shortstop José Caballero ranged well to his right to field a grounder off the bat of Langford, but his throw pulled first baseman Jonathan Aranda off the bag over at first. No big deal, as Aranda’s dive for the ball carried him back towards home plate and put him in a pretty good position to slap a tag on Langford as he flew by. Aranda clearly wasn't expecting Langford to vault over him -- you can't really fault him for that -- nor for Langford's spikes to perfectly clear his glove and still catch the middle of the bag on the way over.
As you would expect, this move left some confusion in its wake -- Langford was initially called safe, then apparently called out, which had both managers on the top steps of their respective dugouts prepared to make opposite arguments over the same play. Officially it was the out call that stuck, and a Rangers challenge that cleared things up -- Langford was ruled safe, Caballero was charged with an error and the viewers were left with the knowledge that there's a five-tool player out there who could have a successful second career in track and field.
All that said, we do have good news for the baseball traditionalists out there -- this bit of baserunning strategy is unlikely to catch on.