Former Iowa Hawkeyes pitcher Ty Langenberg already has achieved his main goal for his 1st pro baseball season

CEDAR RAPIDS — Ty Langenberg has had to reassess his goals for his first season of professional baseball.

Mainly because he already has met one of his biggest ones. If not his biggest one.

Playing at home.

The Urbandale native and former Iowa Hawkeyes pitcher was promoted to the Cedar Rapids Kernels roster last week. He made his high-Class A debut Sunday, throwing five innings and picking up a victory over the Lansing Lugnuts in Michigan.

“When I found out, it was pretty surreal. I can’t lie,” Langenberg said late Tuesday afternoon, prior to C.R.’s home game at Veterans Memorial Stadium against Peoria. “I’d been having a lot of fun, doing pretty well down there in Fort Myers. It was a great team down there, I enjoyed my time. But obviously the end goal, kind of this year at least, was to try and get here. Get closer to family. I’m only an hour and 45 minutes, an hour and 50 from home right now, so it feels good to be back in Iowa.”

Langenberg is a 22-year-old right-hander whom the Minnesota Twins drafted last year in the 11th round. He pitched three years for the Hawkeyes, was a team captain in 2023.

He signed for a bonus of $150,000, and pitched a handful of late-season games in Fort Myers for the Rookie-level Florida Complex League Twins and the low-A Mighty Mussels. Assigned back to low-A, this season began poorly, as he gave up five runs in each of his first two starts.

But a trip to the development list between middle and late April helped him hit the reset button, and things took off from there.

“I thought it was a very long learning process, I’d say. I’ll admit that,” Langenberg said. “The first couple of starts of the season were pretty eye-opening for me, to realize this is a whole different level from college, and that I need to make some adjustments. Luckily I had two good pitching coaches down there, and they worked with me a lot mechanically and just kind of on pitching as a whole. Learning how to be a pitcher and not just a thrower.”

Langenberg really hit his stride in May, and he went at least five innings in his final five starts, allowing two or fewer runs in each of them. That got him moved up.

“It was like a whole system rework,” Langenberg said of his development list stint. “They were like ‘We’re going to take a step back. We’re going to look at your arsenal, your velocity, see if we can make some changes.’ I reworked, like, my entire pre-throw routine. Did some drills, just working on upper half, lower half.

“It definitely and obviously helped. Coming out of that, the next couple of weeks it started coming together. I felt a lot better with my arm and my lower body. In the bullpen, pitch shapes and stuff were really coming together, too. The results showed.”

Langenberg throws from three-quarters slot, with a fastball that generally sits low-90s and has hit 96. He also throws a cutter and has worked arduously on a slider, a pitch he knows he needs if he wants to progress up the minor-league ladder.

His out pitch continues to be a changeup, as it was at Iowa.

“I wouldn’t mind staying here a little bit,” he said. “But I think the goal right now is to go out there and continue to build upon the success I had at Fort Myers. Go out there and put up zeroes, strike out guys, limit the walks, limit the damage and things like that. Just have solid outings. I’d love to see my arsenal come together consistently and see my velo creep up as well. That’s a big piece for me.”

Langenberg is the first former Hawkeyes player to play professionally in Cedar Rapids since catcher Alex Dvorsky was here in 2003. Dvorsky played three years at Iowa, then transferred to Northern Iowa, where he was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels.

Langenberg is the first former Hawkeyes player to play pro ball in C.R. after being drafted from Iowa since outfielder Jeff Jones and infielder Tony Burley played for the Cedar Rapids Reds, then an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.

Langenberg gave up three runs in five innings in his win over Lansing, and is scheduled to start Saturday night’s game at Memorial Stadium against Peoria.

“A lot of family and friends should be here,” Langenberg said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

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