IL stint had net positive impact on Carter's offensive side

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.

ARLINGTON -- Trust him, Evan Carter knows what the numbers are.

That being said, he also has the mental steadiness to maintain confidence in himself. But how does he do that?

“Stay off Twitter,” he joked.

Carter doesn’t even have X (formerly Twitter). But the point still stands. Blocking out the outside noise, focusing on yourself and your teammates and the hitting coaches.

“At the end of the day for me in baseball, there's very few people's opinions that matter to me,” Carter said. “If you're trying to find confidence from anybody else, then we're looking in the wrong place. It's a hard sport, so you gotta look yourself in the mirror and figure out ‘what do I need to do to be better every day.’ I know I'm a better player than a defensive-first outfielder. I can sit here and talk about it all I want. I have to do it.”

Carter recently missed 14 games on the 10-day IL with a right oblique strain he sustained from a diving catch June 12 at Fenway Park. But before that, he was hitting .176 with six home runs and 21 RBIs over 66 games (57 starts) in center field.

“We’ve talked about it before, but I'm not doing nearly as well on paper as I want to be doing, it's not a secret to anybody,” Carter said. “I think right before [the injury] I think I was trending in the right direction. … I think that this year has been a thing of I'm not hitting the ball as good as I want to be hitting the ball, and then also when I do hit it good, it gets caught.

“I think I was swinging at good pitches, putting it forward, hitting it hard. I felt confident, I feel really confident right now. Obviously you always want to feel that way, but I think it's about to be good.”

Carter is 2-for-9 in three games since being activated from the IL on Monday. His two-hit game in Cleveland was his first multihit game since May 26 against the Astros. Both hits came versus left-handed pitchers (Parker Messick and Erik Sabrowski), marking his first career MLB game with two or more hits against southpaws. He was previously 1-for-27 against lefties in 2026.

He followed up with another two-hit game on Thursday night, including a solo home run in the eighth inning -- his first long ball since that May 26 game.

Carter is hitting .320 (8-for-25) over his past nine games -- dating back to before his IL stint -- to raise his season average from .168 to .186.

He continues to be an elite defensive outfielder, as he said. His plus-five defensive runs saved, plus-four outs above average and plus-six fielding run value all rank in the top three among American League center fielders.

“We've missed him out on the defense, we’re definitely missed that part of this game,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “He's also a dynamic player that we need in the lineup, because he provides so many other things. His swing, he’s been working really hard on, he feels good. Coming back, sometimes the IL could be a mental and physical reset. He's coming back excited, ready to play.”