This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry’s Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
BOSTON -- Playing baseball is fun, no matter where you’re at, according to Evan Carter.
So if he spent the last month with Triple-A Round Rock constantly thinking about trying to get back to the big leagues, he felt it was never truly going to happen.
“At the end of the day, though, this is where I want to be,” Carter said on Tuesday at Fenway Park. “I want to be competing here and helping the team win here. Everything that I've done is about trying to be able to get back here and help the team win. I'm doing everything that I can do to be the best version of myself every day, and that's all I can control.”
Carter, who was one of baseball’s most exciting prospects in 2023 and entering ‘24, opened this season with Triple-A Round Rock as his scuffles at the plate persisted throughout Spring Training.
In 2024 -- coming off an electric Rangers postseason run the previous year -- Carter played just 45 games, slashing .188/.272/.361. A stress reaction in his back landed him on the injured list on May 28. After multiple attempts to ramp him back up, he was officially shut down for the year in August.
Carter had an ablation procedure performed on his back this offseason, and he felt like he entered camp healthy. But he still never looked quite right. In 15 Cactus League games, he hit .154 (6-for-39) with a .419 OPS. He never looked comfortable at the plate, noting that the spring, in his own words, “sucked.”
But over the last month in Round Rock, Carter made some swing changes that eased the pressure on his back, resulting in him hitting the ball better than he has in years.
Carter has hit .221/.333/.416 in 21 games for the Express this year, but each of his seven extra-base hits (three home runs, two triples, two doubles) have come in his last 14 games. In that span, since April 10, Carter has reached safely in 12 of those 14 contests, hitting at a .288 average and a .577 slugging percentage, the latter of which is the 11th-highest in the Pacific Coast League during that span. And he made an immediate impact in his first game back in the Rangers' lineup, going 2-for-5 with a run scored to help in Texas’ 6-1 victory over the Red Sox Tuesday night.
“This is the best I have felt in a while,” Carter said. “It actually doesn’t hurt to swing anymore. I feel free, and it doesn’t feel like I am getting stabbed in the back every time I try to swing. … I feel great right now, I’m really excited with where I’m at.”
Physically he’s better than ever. But mentally, he’s also in a great spot at this point of the season.
“As much as you don't want to admit it, obviously missing a whole year sucks,” Carter said. “You can tell yourself that you're ready and confident, but when you step in the box it feels foreign to you. Having actual game action, playing every day, being around your guys and being on an actual baseball field, it's a little bit different. I'm really happy, confidence wise, with where I'm at.”
Manager Bruce Bochy said that Carter will now get the majority of playing time in center field after Leody Taveras was placed on waivers on Monday. Veteran Kevin Pillar and utilityman Josh Smith could also get reps at the position, particularly against left-handed pitchers, but Bochy made it clear Carter is going to get a lot of runway.
“He's ready. He's healthy,” Bochy said. “He's been going out there on a consistent basis. He's swinging the bat well. That's all we were waiting for. I thought even before Spring Training that he was going to need this.
“He was going to need some time. He missed so many at-bats last year, so he needed at least a month down there to get him back into the flow of playing every day and getting his timing down, but also getting healthy. More than anything, we feel he's ready now.”