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.
KANSAS CITY -- Evan Carter took what one would call aggressive accountability for a pair of catches he failed to make in the sixth inning of the Rangers’ loss to the Royals on Tuesday.
The first was a 101.6 mph triple off the bat of Maikel Garcia, which Carter couldn’t corral as he flew into the right-center-field wall at Kauffman Stadium. The second was a 102.5 mph double that Carter got turned around on as it “knuckleballed” through the thick Kansas City air.
"I should have caught them" was a frequent refrain from Carter, despite the perceived difficulty of the plays.
“When you have a talent like Evan in center field, you would probably expect everything to be caught in his mind,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “He thinks everything in the air should be caught. That's the mentality that you want as a center fielder. I appreciate Evan saying that. Do I think those balls should be caught? I think for Evo [starter Nathan Eovaldi], for the team, for himself, all of that, I'm sure that Evan is looking back on those and wishing that he would have caught them. There's no doubt, because I think he's a Gold Glover. Those balls will be caught more often than not, because of how good he is.”
Despite a poor defensive day for the Rangers’ best defender, the plays that he does make are the reason he remains with the big league club amidst a flood of roster reshuffling over the last two weeks, which included sending down left fielder Alejandro Osuna.
“We think Evan provides so much value to us defensively,” said president of baseball operations Chris Young. “To this point, the strength of this team has been pitching, and our defense has gotten better. I think [in] the last month our defense has improved dramatically. Credit to our staff and our players for working on that, but you know those are the two constants in my mind over the last few years. I don't think we should run away from that.”
Carter’s +4 Defensive Runs Saved, +6 Outs Above Average and +5 Fielding Run Value are all second among American League outfielders to Boston’s Ceddanne Rafaela.
So despite a .178 average and a .620 OPS, Carter is still a valuable player. That's kept him with the big league club to work through his struggles at the plate. And regardless of the low average, he’s still got elite plate discipline and speed that -- when he puts the ball in play -- becomes his most valuable asset.
Defense has always been Carter’s calling card. That’s not going to change anytime soon. But he’s also aware of how much more valuable he can be if he can hit as he did during his first stint with the Rangers -- .306/.413./.645 in 23 games in 2023 -- before injuries stalled his development.
“I do believe in run prevention, and he's one of the best in the game,” Schumaker said. “[His profile is] a really good player in the Major Leagues. If he's league average at the plate, and he does what he does on the defense and on the bases, that is a really, really good player.
“So I know that he's had a tough couple of weeks, but I still think he’s above average against right-handed pitchers. He's still young. It's our job to help him continue to get better, and even in these little funks, can he bunt better? Of course. Can he, you know, get more hits against right-handed pitching? He's working on that and trying to do that, and it's our job as coaches to help him get there.”