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 -- The game of baseball has changed in countless ways since the turn of the century. It would take forever to list them all.
But Rangers manager Skip Schumaker wants to keep one part of the game alive and thriving -- bunting.
“I’m a proponent of finding ways to win,” said Schumaker. “I think the game has overcorrected, honestly. It was all launch angle and bat speed. Then, not everybody is like that. If I did that as a player, I would be in and out of the game like that [snaps]. I don't want to see Corey Seager bunt. But there's guys in the league that have profiles that can utilize this and it can be a really good part of not only their game, but help us win. I think it's a useful part of some people's game.”
The Rangers had 26 bunt hits from 2023-25, tied with the Cubs for 21st in MLB (including postseason).
And looking at the Rangers' lineup construction, he’s right. Guys like Seager and Jake Burger aren’t going to be bunting at all, really. But guys like Josh Smith, Ezequiel Duran and Evan Carter? It absolutely needs to be part of their games to make them more well rounded players.
Carter, specifically, is probably the Rangers that can benefit most from laying down a bunt every now and then.
“It should be part of his game,” Schumaker said. “He's a young player still learning this league, still learning himself. He's got really good speed from the left side. … He wants to be an everyday player. I want him to be an everyday player. He's elite in center field. I think he can really utilize this tool against lefties, righties, whether it's for a hit or for getting a guy over. That's super valuable. I think he just needed to see it have success with it, for him to be like, ‘Oh yeah, it's gonna work.'”
Carter already took a step forward with that.
He laid down his first career bunt for a hit on April 17 against Logan Gilbert and the Mariners. In the last week, the Rangers’ center fielder has bunted -- both for hits and sacrifices -- more than he’s really attempted in most of his MLB career.
“Well, I can't hit right now, so I'm just trying to do something,” Carter joked.
“I'm a good bunter,” he added seriously. “I just need to do it. Sometimes I think ego gets in the way a lot. You think you can go up there and get a hit, and why would I bunt when I could get a hit? But at the same time, especially against somebody like Gilbert, you have to take your opportunities. I’m just trying to figure out a way to help the team get an extra run whenever I can.”
Carter has been working with first-base coach Travis Jankowski on bunting since the start of Spring Training. Throughout his 11-year big league career -- two of which were with the Rangers -- Jankowski accumulated 27 bunt hits. Though not a one-to-one comparison -- Carter clearly has more power than Jankowski did in his career -- he is a similar type of player that Carter can emulate.
Jankowski said his goal was to try to break that ice with Carter and have him comfortable enough to try to bunt for hits, not just sacrifices. That’s come with repetition. It’s machine work, it’s footwork, it’s timing and execution.
And to be honest, Jankowski said, it was easy enough. Carter didn’t have any bad habits to break because he had never bunted a whole lot anyway.
“It opens up the field for him, right?” Jankowski said. “It's not just bunting. It opens up more hits, too. I think it makes him a serious weapon against a lefty to be able to bunt. I think you look at a guy like Chandler Simpson. Obviously, he is elite of elite speed, but Evan is great to elite speed as well. I think it opens up the game for Evan. He's such a valuable tool for us at center field. If he can come in there every day off a lefty and get a walk or a bunt down, it gives him an opportunity to be out there every day.”
Carter and Schumaker admitted that sometimes guys are reluctant to bunt. Maybe, it sends the message that you believe you can’t go up there and swing.
But the Rangers want to find the best way to win games, whether that’s with the long ball or by bunt and moving the runner over. In an ideal world, it’s a little bit of both.
“Since I've been here, bunting has been talked about. We encourage them to use it,” Schumaker said. “I do feel fortunate that our organization believes in small ball and old school types of baseball as well. It's not just like one or the other. [Minor League field coordinator] Kenny Holmberg and [farm director] Josh Bonifay believe in it in the Minors. And Evan Carter should be getting bunts for hits and sacrificing to win games. I think he's just good with it. I know he's good with it.”